Quarantine got you down? Primal urges, with no release? Dying alone feeling more and more like a distinct possibility as days go on? Well, you are not alone. Many previously reliant on face to face meetings and university meet-ups have resorted to dating apps to find love.

Gone are the days of posting on University confession pages inquiring for the name of the slightly hunched boy in the black shirt with curly hair and a cute smile to please message us on Facebook messenger.

Fear of exchanging bodily fluids during an outbreak aside, people are lonely. Dating apps like Tinder and Bumble fill in for that loneliness. As they say proof is in the pudding – Multiple dating apps have experienced a surge in activity during the quarantine season. Tinder users made three billion swipes worldwide on March 29, the highest daily total the app has ever recorded. Plus, in the UK, daily conversations rose by 12% between mid-February and March, according to the BBC. That said, longer convos does not always translate to face to face meetings as H.I. from Seri Kembangan notes.

“It was really weird, my first time on Tinder and I met someone I felt a connection with. He lived far away in JB so it was difficult to meet up but it didn’t stop us from texting each other all day and video-calling till late at night. I’m sad that we could not meet up but having someone to talk to was a pretty great feeling too.”

So have you been one of those new, engaged users? And if not, should you be getting in on this train of digitized love-making and under which app should you hedge your romantic bets? Fret not, for this article will act as your guide to online dating – Tinder or Bumble? We don’t use OkCupid because repeat after me: we are not that desperate.

So firstly first Tinder. It is by far the most popular of the dating apps with monthly users clocking in at 50 million people and an average of 12 million matches per day. The app’s common features include Swipe, Messaging, Instagram Integration and Tinder Gold.

You will find a wide, diverse cross section of society on this app, owing to the apps large base of monthly users. Plus, as features go, it is pretty well stocked so if you can’t get any matches maybe you are just ugly. Jk, I’m sure your personality is great.

If the matches still are not rolling in, Tinder Passport which is a paid feature allows you to travel anywhere in the world, digitally, to find the love of your life or just someone to talk to. Sometimes, you may even find a Malaysian based elsewhere as M from TTDI tells me.

“I had originally used Tinder Passport just because I was studying in the UK region and being back home due to Covid-19 had me missing the area a little. It was my first time using Tinder, having broken up with my ex a few months back. I found Sam on Tinder Passport, Northern Ireland where she is studying medicine by day and working at a hospital by night. Originally from Malaysia, we hit it off and have been sending each other long, deep and meaningful messages ever since. I have not bonded this well with anyone in a long while”

But yeah, Tinder, a prominent complaint and source of dissatisfaction faced by many men lies in trying to will a response from your match.

Thus, this is where Bumble comes in.

Bumble, the second most popular app after Tinder, is pretty much identical to its forerunner with one big ground shaking, earth defining difference – female users make the first contact with male users. Bumble is great for getting all the basic, boring questions out of the way while also getting a feel for the person’s personality.

All this works out so you can dive right into chatting about the weird shit like UFOs in 2020 and Kanye running for presidency without filling any paperwork (pretty crazy unlikely right guys – another narcissist celebrity with a God complex running just seems like bad writing). Oh wait, nevermind.

But, yeah, all said and done, if you are not getting the responses you’d like to see on Tinder, give Bumble a shot. And, if Bumble does not work out, maybe you can hit up my man, the man Donald J. Trump for any good deals on Russian wives in this region.

In order to protect identities, interviewees have requested to stay anonymous