Dating Tips: Now you can live App-ily ever after

Let's face it. Dating in India can be tricky business that needs more than just chemistry between the participants. It's not exactly a surprise to anyone that India is not the safest place to go out and meet a stranger.

But thankfully, the switch to digital is steadily, if slowly, ensuring that Indians have a pleasant experience with multiple options to choose from while dating online. Here are a few:

If you're looking to break the ice…try Quack Quack

Quack Quack has a registered usage of over 5.2 lakh people, and boasts 1,200 new signups every day with Bengaluru being the most active. "After creating profiles, users send waves (pre-defined icebreakers) to introduce themselves," says Mittal. And receivers, if interested, reply back with a wave to break the ice.

If you're looking for a hookup… hit Tinder

Tinder, known for making its left-swipe a popular hashtag today, is one of the simplest dat ing apps. It uses your Facebook information to find matches closest to you. Then it's a matter of swiping right to chat with someone you like or left to pass him or her over. If they've also liked you, you can initiate a conversation.

If you want a relationship…. go the Woo way

"We at Woo are very clear about keeping thril l-seekers and married folks out through a three-layered filtering process," says Sumesh Menon, co-founder and CEO. "Woo is all about real connections, and meaningful relationships." Woo, according to Menon, has already formed 300K matches and has 200K users at present.

Or Floh, to move in the right direction...

Operating in 15 cities and 5 countries, Floh was started to help online matches meet off line. It hosts matchmaking events throughout the year in New York, Bengaluru, Mumbai and Delhi, and is planning to expand to Chennai, Kolkata, Pune, San Franciso and Hyderabad. These include events aimed to bring out the romantic in an interested single: sessions of single malt evenings, dancing, vintage car rallies and so on at premium joints (like Indigo, Olive, Café Zoe and Monkey Bar). A membership fee of Rs 1,250-Rs 2,500 is charged on a flexible annual or monthly plan.

If you're a single parent… head to Footloose No More

FNM attempts to make longerlasting matches by limiting its lower age (though not its upper age limit): only women above the age of 26, and men above 28 years are allowed to use the service. "Since we started this five years ago, we noticed an interesting trend of urban Indian singles between the ages of 30-45," says founder Varsha Vadhyar.

If you're worried about security… Get Vee

Even with close to one lakh downloads, the app Vee has some strict security measures put in place – especially for women: The Anti-Screenshot feature doesn't let random people take screenshots of your profile, and the Disappear Chat option will delete chat records from both users phones. It also offers a Go Invisible feature.