Leave the 'Forever Alone' feels in 2018 and get ready to up your dating game this New Year. If you are dreading the notorious 'Dating Sunday' this weekend, here's help. 

The first Sunday of the New Year just happens to be the busiest online dating day of the year. Yes, your chance to find a partner or just friends-with-benefits are the highest this weekend, on January 6. According to a report by Bustle, last year's 'Dating Sunday' was the busiest for Hinge and Tinder. Hinge usage shot up by 22.5% while Tinder reported almost 44 million Tinder matches being made in a single day on 'Dating Sunday'.

“We love people and the hustle as we are the wizards of the future. The people that we meet have the tendency to mould their monotonous routines. It could be as a friend, a social contact, a date or a romance. Dating applications empowers people to translate their ‘could be’s’ into ‘would be’s’ and enable the possibility of encountering with someone, who may intensify their lives even more”, says Tarika Wahi and Tajinder Bagga, co-founders, Banter.

1. Tinder 

The OG of dating applications, it's unique selling proposition is its algorithm which connects you with a person in less than one minute. Originally intended as a hook-up app, Tinder may have lost it's sheen on desi turf with some joining the app thinking of it as a glorified Facebook. With some stunning features like mutual friends, the super-like option, etc as well as the varied options that the app offers in a bid to give you a perfectly personalised dating experience are what sets it apart. Users can also manage their search results on the basis of factors such as age, or distance.

2. Banter

For women, by women. New in the market, Banter is rewriting fairy tales for the digital dating era. Basically, the lady decides what she wants. The key difference banter withholds is that it screens people during the registration via facebook making it mandatory for the users to upload their valid identification for enrolling as a premium club member. This outcast the fake and multiple profile registrations which are very prevalent across the existing apps and thereby eliminate any misuse of the feature on Banter.

3. Truly Madly

India’s own dating app. This app goes beyond the parameters of distance and age and helps one find matches on the basis of interests and other preferences. Users can not only keep their images safe with a unique feature on this app but can also ask friends to endorse them for a better trust score, which will eventually lead to a higher number of conversations with their matches.The app encourages users to play certain interesting games with their matches, such as Styletastic, Foodie Funda, Hocus Pocus etc. in order to help them get to know each other in a better and more interesting manner.

4. Happn

Happn, a location-based social search mobile app born in Paris allows users to like or dislike other users and allows them to chat if both parties liked each other. The application gives an everyday superpower: the power to find people who have crossed paths with and want to get in touch with them. Every time a user cross paths with another Happn member in real life, their profile shows up on their timeline. On every profile, the user can see the number of times they have encountered with the same person. And if in case the user doesn’t want to see a person anymore on the application they just have to click on the cross button.

5. OKCupid

OkCupid uses a machine learning-based algorithm to match you on what matters; our algorithm connects people based on deeper things, like beliefs and interests, instead of just a photo and random parameters such as location. For the same reason, we have an intentionally longer sign-up process with several questions to contextualize potential matches better, while also giving us more data that helps our algorithms match you on what matters. It considers your responses to questions, your preferences, interests and hobbies, and your profile to find you the people you’re compatible with. Questions you mark as important carry more weight in the algorithm as well so that it considers all your deal breakers and makers to find you, people, you’ll really connect with.

6. Bumble

Bumble, more or less like Tinder with the swipe right technique. That being done, the power of kick-starting a conversation lies in the hands of the female. Once matched, she’s required to start the conversation within 24 hours, failing which the match will disappear forever. This holds true for same-sex matches, as well as for those who are on the lookout for friendships. And just in case the user is too worried about running out on time, the app allows them to extend the ticking clock for another 24 hours for a maximum of one connection per day.

7. Woo

Woo is a dating and matchmaking app, which focuses only on well-educated professionals. With some unique features such as Voice Intro, Tag Search, Question Cast and Direct Messaging, this app proves to be rather engaging for the user.
The algorithm of this app helps find matches based on your interest tags and for what it’s worth, you can actually search for probable matches, just on the basis of a single tag that you feel interests you the most.