Hily’s safety-focused dating app arrives in the UK, France, Australia and New Zealand

Updated October 13, 2022

Published March 25, 2019

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First launched in the US back in 2017, dating app Hily finally opened to UK users earlier this month, alongside Ireland, France, Australia, and New Zealand.

Hily, an acronym for “Hey, I like you”, competes with other dating apps using the promise of machine learning to serve you matchmaking that’s more intelligent than the average service.

Hily can be downloaded via the iTunes App Store or Google Play.

Basic AI

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Dating Apps

The Las Vegas-based company claims to offer the basic version of the app for free, which includes basic features of artificial intelligence, however if you want more features, you’ll need to pay. Some users in the comments suggest that the ‘free’ option is actually only a seven-day free trial.

The AI feature supposedly means that the more you use Hily, the more compatible your matches will be. The matchmaking algorithms take into account your interests and the depth of your dialogue to find you your perfect match. This is a refreshing spin on the typical swipe culture that mostly rests upon physical attraction, though it does still use a swipe interface.

Basic users will enjoy limited likes, however, for its premium features, “Hily Elixir” users are charged up to $14.99 per week, $53.99 for three months or $119.99 for one year, for profile visibility boosts, chat requests and “rollback” feature in case you accidentally swipe past a prospective match.

Safety First

While other dating apps hosting plenty of catfish, fake accounts and even bots, Hily has ID verification checks, via FaceBook and photo capture when setting up a profile. This has gone a long way towards the app’s popularity in the US and other countries in which it already operated.

On top of this, there’s also an ‘event’ feature that encourages you to meet your date in a safe, public setting.

Article by

Oli Lipski

Oli is a freelance sex tech researcher based in London. With an MA in Sexual Dissidence, researching sex tech, and a BA in History, researching gender and sexuality, she has a keen understanding of the past, present and future of sex. In addition to SEXTECHGUIDE, you can find Oli’s work on titles such as shado-mag, QueerMajority, UnicornZine and more.

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