Skip to main content

Haters gonna date: This app finds you love based on your dislikes

The enemy of your enemy doesn’t have to just be your friend — he or she can be your special friend. That’s the hope of Hater, a new dating app that seeks to bring people together based on a different sort of connection — the mutual dislike of anything from vegetables to minivans. Launching publicly on February 8, Hater knows that when it comes to relationships, it’s not all about hearts and flowers.

“What we hate is an important part of who we are, but it’s often swept under the rug in our public persona,” said Brendan Alper, CEO of Hater. “We want people to express themselves more honestly. Plus, it’s easy to start a conversation with someone if you know you both hate pickles.”

The app still utilizes the same swiping function familiar to Tinder, Bumble, and Hinge users, but instead of swiping on people, users swipe on topics. As the user base grows, so does the list of issues. Based on your mutual dislikes, Hater creates a compendium of your most compatible potential matches, which you can then browse through at your leisure.

Automatic icebreakers are also built into the app. After all, you already know what you and your matches have in common — a mutual disdain for cilantro, black-and-white photos, or cacti, for example.

“Dating is supposed to be fun,” Alper said. “Somewhere along the line, dating apps lost sight of that. Hater wants to bring it back.” Be warned, however, that while Hater may be a tongue-in-cheek environment, it’s no excuse to act a fool in the app. “Hater absolutely does not stand for hate speech or bigotry — particularly animosity toward races, religions, or body types,” the app notes in its terms of service. “Our team carefully moderates the topics, and we have a strict one-strike policy for anyone who abuses our guidelines.” 

So get swiping, friends. Sometimes, hate can turn to love.

Editors' Recommendations

Lulu Chang
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Fascinated by the effects of technology on human interaction, Lulu believes that if her parents can use your new app…
If you have one of these apps on your Android phone, delete it immediately
The app drawer on the Google Pixel 8 Pro.

The NSO Group raised security alarms this week, and once again, it’s the devastatingly powerful Pegasus malware that was deployed in Jordan to spy on journalists and activists. While that’s a high-profile case that entailed Apple filing a lawsuit against NSO Group, there’s a whole world of seemingly innocuous Android apps that are harvesting sensitive data from an average person’s phone.
The security experts at ESET have spotted at least 12 Android apps, most of which are disguised as chat apps, that actually plant a Trojan on the phone and then steal details such as call logs and messages, remotely gain control of the camera, and even extract chat details from end-to-end encrypted platforms such as WhatsApp.
The apps in question are YohooTalk, TikTalk, Privee Talk, MeetMe, Nidus, GlowChat, Let’s Chat, Quick Chat, Rafaqat, Chit Chat, Hello Chat, and Wave Chat. Needless to say, if you have any of these apps installed on your devices, delete them immediately.
Notably, six of these apps were available on the Google Play Store, raising the risk stakes as users flock here, putting their faith in the security protocols put in place by Google. A remote access trojan (RAT) named Vajra Spy is at the center of these app's espionage activities.

A chat app doing serious damage

Read more
The 10 best apps for your 2024 New Year’s resolutions
An app folder on an iPhone titled "New Year's Apps."

Now that the holidays have come and gone, it’s time to look forward to the new year. And you know what that means — 2024 New Year’s resolutions!

I know that we all try to make some resolutions each year, but it’s hard to stay on top of it. Whether it’s trying to eat healthier and exercise more, managing your budget better, or even just trying to form better overall habits and break bad ones, there are apps to help you stay on track.

Read more
WhatsApp now lets you send self-destructing voice messages
WhatsApp logo on a phone.

If you’re on WhatsApp and regularly make use of the view once feature for photo and video messages, then you might be interested to learn that the feature has now been expanded to voice messages.

WhatsApp’s view once feature does what it says, deleting a message after it’s been viewed a single time. It’s been available for photos and videos since 2021, but now you can also send voice messages that can only be played once before they, too, disappear from the app.

Read more