OKCupid seems to have marketed this free iPhone app as primarily a quick means of sending messages quickly back and forth between yourself and someone you haven’t mustered up the courage to give out a real phone number to just yet. It makes sense then, that the e-message and IM capabilities of OKCupid are the functions of the iPhone app that were carried over most completely. If, say, you’re running late for a date with someone, you could hop onto your account and quickly send them a message explaining as much.
Of course, you’re still able to view and search for other potential matches, just like you can on the real site, and this too is handled with ease. Just like on OKcupid.com, you select the criteria you’re looking for (“Has pictures, 22-26, lives within 25 miles of Idaho”, for instance), and then you can sort your matches by the last time they were online, your match percentage, or several other qualifiers.
The one rather large aspect in which the search function falls short in is the inability on the iPhone app to enter a wildcard to your search. For instance, maybe you want to see profiles that contain the phrase “Ghostbusters rules.” You can do that easily on the Web site, but you’re not able to add even a single word qualifier on the iPhone app. It’s an odd omission that would make finding exactly what you were looking for more difficult than it should be.
The only other complaint one could have about the iPhone app is that it doesn’t allow you to edit your profile. You can add pictures to your profile with ease, but changing any of the information on it is a no-go. I suppose it would be a bit cumbersome to edit a long profile on your iPhone, but users should still have the option.
Problems aside, the iPhone app functions as a solid extension of the OKCupid brand. You can even improve your match percentage via the iPhone app. Being that answering the questions to improve your match percentage was always a bit tedious sitting on your computer, it’s a nice time-wasting feature to be able to take care of it on your iPhone app while waiting for a bus.
If you already have an OKCupid profile, you might as well add this to your iPhone app collection, and if you’re not a member, be sure to remember to grab the iPhone app if you ever do sign up.
