Dating apps are a cesspool of inauthenticity, with scammers preying on vulnerable people looking for love. The free Raw app introduces a simple, effective technique to combat this scourge: You must take and upload a real picture of yourself once per day. It's a good idea that gives Raw a lot of initial promise. That said, the concept is undercut by a service lacking rich features, such as the meaningful profiles and video chat found in Editors' Choice winners Match and Tinder.

Mobile Apps and Sign-Up Process

Raw is a free mobile app for Android and iOS. There’s no desktop version, so I tested the app on an iPhone. During the sign-up process, Raw asks basic questions about your gender and age preferences, interests, and location. You can change your answers later.

(Credit: Raw/PCMag)

The service quickly introduces you to its trademark feature. Before swiping profiles, you must take photos of your face and environment using your phone's front and back cameras. Photos without your face aren't accepted, and you must snap a new picture daily.

This feature should be familiar to anyone who has used BeReal. The goal is to promote immediate authenticity in how people present themselves, instead of relying on the same handful of highly curated and edited glamour shots. This also ensures Raw users are real people, as daily face photos are much harder to fake.

Although many Raw profile photos feature folks in their homes, that mundanity is the point. They're real people looking to date other real people, and the experiment works.

Pricing and Tiers

When I first reviewed Raw, there was no way to pay for the premium tier or even see the price. Instead, I was prompted to invite my friends to Raw, with the promise of one free premium month if three friends signed up. Now, you can simply sign up for Raw's premium subscription, which starts at $19.99 per month. You can still invite friends to join, but there's no longer a financial incentive.

With a Raw premium account, you can see who likes you and gain five Super Likes weekly to tell potential matches how strongly you feel about them. You also receive one boost per week to skip to the head of the dating line. You can even reuse an old pic instead of snapping a new one.

Still, Raw could be more robust. For example, it doesn't let premium users undo swipes, a common bonus in other apps. Likewise, the service lacks a video chat option, which has become especially popular recently. Raw has few extra features, so there's little incentive to upgrade from a free account.

(Credit: Raw/PCMag)

Interface and Profiles

Despite the useful photo hook, Raw is a generic dating app lacking the cool features found in Bumble, Hinge, and Tinder. You swipe right on profiles you like, you swipe left on profiles you don't. It's a time-tested formula that works well enough in Raw’s clean, basic interface. 

However, the profiles don't offer much information. I didn't expect it to rival Match's profile depth, but Raw only lists a person's name, age, and daily pic. With only one picture to look at instead of a gallery, this is arguably a shallower way to judge people. It goes against the emphasis on realness. 

Oddly, Raw still lets you create a more fleshed-out profile, with additional photos, a bio, and hot takes. However, this information doesn't appear while swiping. Presumably, that data influences who shows up in your feed. After all, die-hard sports fans who want kids probably aren't looking for someone who loves anime and dislikes children. 

(Credit: Raw/PCMag)

Raw has nifty messaging features to keep conversations safe and cordial. For example, the Respect Meter adds a red flag to seemingly toxic answers on a person’s profile. It also adds a green flag to reassuring answers. In addition, the Ghosting Killer feature stops you from initiating a new connection if you have too many other open conversations you haven't responded to (maybe this will teach you how to have a healthy breakup). These clever tools go beyond merely blocking and reporting someone, which you can also do.

Raw also has a few AI dating features, although these seem nebulous. Raw Q is an AI assistant that analyzes profiles and conversations to provide automatic dating advice. Algorithms are nothing new for dating apps, but reducing the human element in communications seems a little troublesome. Meanwhile, The Ring is a physical ring that claims to share emotions between partners using AI and bio-sensors. We'll see if that takes off.