But as our smartphones become increasingly powerful, fewer of us are dating from behind our desktops, rather turning to the digital devices in our pockets. Recent years have seen an explosion of dating apps, and there seem to be incredibly niche ones launching every day. If you wear glasses or are into people who do, try , for example. Have a particular passion for men with beards? We set ourselves the challenge of trying as many as possible, leading to many dates and even more phone notifications. All the apps allow you to search for men, women or both, with all of them available on iOS devices, most on Android and some for Windows Phone, too. However there are also plenty of people using Tinder just for hook-ups. You can pay money for premium features including Tinder Passport the ability to swipe through matches elsewhere in the world, say, before a trip and Rewind, for those times when you swipe left too hastily and immediately regret it. There's also Tinder Feed, which is a part of the app where you can see when your matches add new pictures to their profiles, often leading to rekindling of old conversations. Tinder is not only perhaps the best-known dating app in the world, but also one of the most inclusive, allowing users to identify as one of nearly 40 genders. The idea behind it is to save women from receiving leering advances or cringey chat-up lines from men, and it also takes the pressure off guys to start conversations. Similarly, your match only has 24 hours to reply — if he does though, the time limit disappears for future messages. You can also switch to Bumble Bizz and Bumble BFF if you're more interested in finding professional contacts and friends respectively. You create your profile through Facebook and can also link your Instagram and Spotify accounts if you like, set your preferences, then scroll down through your options. The app currently has 50 million users around the world and operates in 50 major cities spread across 40 countries. We noticed both a different type of person and questions on Match compared to the likes of Tinder and Bumble. This is an app for people really looking for relationships. The app is easy to use but we personally found the number of messages, winks, views and favourites we received overwhelming. Match also organises events for meeting people offline. You got four matches today! Extra dedicated users can spend money and even exchange messages with a match-maker too. It made a nice change to have lots of information about people including little quirky details, and you can actually specify details such as the height range of the people you're shown - which may be a plus for the pickier amongst us. The app claims to learn your tastes too, but as is often the case, many matches don't lead to conversations. Huggle can be used to find dates or friends, and the main thinking behind the app is that having common ground is essential in order to establish meaningful connection. The unique thing about Huggle is that you pick initially five of your favourite places — be they shops, restaurants or parks — and then find people who go there too. You can either swipe through people who you have places in common with or tap on one of your locations to reveal who goes there. However, if your potential suitors have previously checked-in on Facebook to the same places as you, that will appear on their profiles. When signing up, you have to verify your profile in one of various ways, for example by sending a selfie mimicking a certain pose, which hopefully limits scammers too. When someone is checked into the same place as you, you can view their profile. It's available in 190 countries and in 47 languages. As well as discovering people nearby you can also find people in any location just select a city and you can meet people anywhere. But because every user is vetted, you know you won't come across any fake profiles. What's more, you can set specific preferences and will then only be proposed users who tick all your boxes. However, you're only given three profiles to like or leave each day, so the pool is slim. Matches on The League expire after 21 days too, so if you don't get chatting, your potential suitor will disappear. Chappy: Free Rogers and Locke Chappy Founded by Made In Chelsea's Ollie Locke and Jack Rogers, Chappy is a gay dating app which offers users the choice between relationships or a casual hook-up, thus clarifying what your match is after from the get-go. The app considers itself an alternative to the many that seem to promote the posting of headless, mirror-selfie, torso shots, the sending of unsolicited intimate pictures and hook-up culture. It's available in 11 languages and more than 20 countries, and claims it has more conversations than any other dating app - 2. Using the classic swipe-to-match format, women are able to chat, date and hook-up with other LGBTQ singles in their area or around the world. The app considers itself to be a trusted and secure place for women to connect, get to know and even fall in love with each other. While the basic version off the app is free, you can pay for extra features. The site feels more serious than other dating apps, and users have the option to search profiles by keyword - for example, if you're obsessed with a particular author, you can search for other singles who mention her or him in their profile. However another favourite is , because we love its focus on equality and empowerment. IndyBest product reviews are unbiased, independent advice you can trust. 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