Oli Lipski
As the name suggests, Kinkoo is a kink and BDSM friendly hook-up app which has more in common with FetLife than Tinder. Many conversations start with the simple question ‘sub or dom’ so if you’re seeking to own or be owned as a virtual slave this is the place to come.
Unfortunately the app has a disproportionately high number of scammers and sex workers selling porn and kink services, so do expect to receive a high number of these approaches.
Don’t expect users to have read your profile before contacting you, and don’t be surprised if the conversation peters out very quickly. Meaningful or lengthy exchanges here are the exception rather than the rule. A quick look at some profiles on Kinkoo reveals shocking levels of literacy, so it’s best to manage expectations accordingly.
Unusually for an app in this space it has an open messaging platform so you don’t have to match before sending someone a message. You can restrict your messaging profile so that you filter out unverified users or those you don’t already match with but this option is not activated by default and restricted to paying members. Inevitably this dilutes the quality of the user experience as you spend a fair amount of time weeding out potential scammers.
PLEASE NOTE: Dating apps are hugely subjective. Your ‘success’ and overall experience are likely to vary hugely from person-to-person. For our dating app reviews, we’ve tried to include as much objective information as possible, from reviewers who have used the Free and Premium features of each service. Where possible, we also include comments from the actual people reviewers meet via these apps, to try and get a balanced viewpoint from both sides.
Kinkoo: Profile Options and Settings
Profile options are decent enough. You can upload up to 9 photos which users scroll through. Don’t try uploading anything too spicy here though, as the app oddly has stringent vetting of anything approaching adult content in profile pictures. As an example, a picture of your reviewer’s hairy belly was rejected.
You can indicate your specific kinks, both offered and wanted, on your profile by choosing from a set menu of key words (age player, foot fetish etc). You’re encouraged to verify your profile by uploading a picture of yourself holding up something with the word Kinkoo, which speaks to the app’s endemic problem with spam and scam users.
Talking of censorship, the commercial motivation of many members is such that the app actually censors the use of certain terms and key words in profiles, including kik and snapchat, but less understandably a variety of non-commercial sexual words too, including the very word ‘sex’ itself.
Design
Kinkoo’s design is rather cluttered with at least five different interfaces for browsing profiles. As well as the standard swiping screen, there’s a feed which people can use to upload pics or statuses which are frequently used to plug services, either directly or indirectly, to find local hook ups or simply to quench their attention thirst.
You can like these feed posts or comment on them, but oddly you can’t read other people’s comments left on them for some reason.
Then there’s a separate interface called Find (the swiping interface is labelled Meet, confusingly) which displays a tile of six users per screen in an overview mode which presents their lead pic, age and location. All of these layers inevitably confuse the more casual user.
A lurid colour scheme of black and hot pink does not help present the app as a serious and sophisticated contender.
Filtering
Filtering options are pretty limited. You can filter geographically but the vast majority of users are in the USA and any geo-filters are very broad indeed, limited to certain US cities.
You can also filter by age, gender and the specific kinks users are searching for. In fairness to Kinkoo they do have a reporting feature which is acted on promptly, usually within 24 hours or sooner.
There’s also an extensive safety tips section in the app’s FAQ in which they detail various scams out there. Again, knowing there’s a problem and dealing with it effectively are two different beasts, the latter of which Kinkoo has yet to tame.
Costs
- £14.99 for 1 month
- £36.99 for 3 months
- £55.99 for 6 months
Kinkoo has a paid tier called ‘VIP’ which primarily lets you see the profiles of users who’ve liked you, gives you unlimited daily swipes and lets you target users in specific cities and locations. Crucially it also lets you toggle on privacy settings which you can use to prevent random users messaging you, restricting it to only people with verified profiles or those you’ve already matched with. This feature is plugged with invasive prompts at regular intervals.
Users can choose to highlight their profiles for a set fee of 100 in app coins (£7.99) or even advertise themselves on the home screen as the ap’s ‘Cover Start’ for 24 hours (1000 coins for £48.99) which suggests that Kinkoo tacitly tolerates commercial activity from its user base despite officially banning it.
You can also buy and send potential crushes virtual roses with several hundred gifted to members who verify their profiles.
Messaging
Messaging on Kinkoo offers pictures, a dedicated emoji keyboard, weirdly, and voice notes, so video is not supported. There are frequent and invasive reminders about spam and scams in the messaging interface which you have to minimise almost each time you open it up.
Messages are time stamped and a green tick is deployed to notify you that your message has been read by the recipient.
Female User Comments: No significant successful matches were made on Kinkoo.
Overall
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