Ripple is a new matchmaking app for professional networking. It feels a lot like an early Tinder, and that’s because it was built by a lot of folks who previously worked at Tinder. The only difference is that it’s not nearly as popular with the target user group.
So, swipe ahead and read more about Ripple, the professional network, not the cryptocurrency with the same name. It’s also not the Ripple social network app from 2015, which is now known as Bellow. Giving a new business or app a cool name that still available isn’t easy.
Am I too boring or is there nobody on?
I tried the Ripple app out for a little more than a day now, and it seems I already went through all available users all over the world a couple of times already. I completed my profile, then joined a few professional groups, I right-swiped a couple of interesting users. So far it seems somewhat dull to me. Nobody swipes me back, and nobody talks in the groups. Okay, you could also blame me for being so lame and say that was the reason why nobody talks back to me. Swiping through, I keep getting the same groups, even though I already joined them.
I got the feeling that there aren’t really a lot of users active of Ripple, but I really wanted to make it work somehow. So I gave the app access to my location and wanted to see how many users are nearby. I was a little surprised to see only a few results, and none of those were even located on the same continent (I’m in Europe right now). Sometimes I also thought that the few users who were online confused the app for finding a date, seeing their topless profile photos. Perhaps the message wasn’t that clear to them.
Not yet there, needs more users
The Android version is currently 0.0.7, with 1.5 stars on the Google Play Store, and the iTunes App Store version is now on 1.2.3, with 1.5 stars as well. Both platforms have received the last update from the developers today.
I think that Ripple might become something in the future if they can attract a lot of users who log in daily. Other than a few essential functions right now it’s not that useful for professional networking. Dead profiles and inactive groups won’t be enough to turn this into a Biz-Tinder. Right now, I will keep using Twitter and LinkedIn for such things. I’ll give them another chance in 2019 if they are still around.
Photo credit: Ripple / Ventus17
