Fling growth Tanking - New app allows local users to find and fuck each other within 24 hours.
You've probably heard the term fling before. It could be classed as either a noun or a verb, because it's both a thing and something you do (known in English as a participle, but don't worry about that). If you're lucky, you'll do a lot of flinging, especially with the help of this new dating app.
Fling seems a pretty apt name for an app then, and the name alone makes its intentions pretty clear. It's here to arrange flings, meaning hook you up with casual sex.
But you see, there are a million apps on the scene just like Fling, all of which promise easy sex within minutes. The dictionary definition of fling describes it as fling; noun - a short period of enjoyment or wild behaviour, and that's exactly what this website promises. But throw the dictionary aside, grab some cookies and get ready to jump into something much more fun.
Does Fling back up its words? Can it provide you with endless hookups, time and time again? Ready to get flung? Read on, because we've compiled everything you need to know about Fling.
My first impressions of Fling were average. The site flaunts a very basic orange and white theme which screams simplicity. Personally, I'm a fan of keeping things basic when it comes to hookup apps. I don't see the need for fancy interactive features or anything like that, so Fling's barebones approach was a welcome surprise. On first glance, the site reminded me of an orange version of Tinder, but unfortunately, that was where the similarities ended.
Fling.com claims to be one of the oldest hookup sites on the internet, dating back all the way to 2006. Indeed, Fling claims to have around 2 million users on its app, with around 180,000 of those users active every day. Compared to some of the more established dating sites out there, these numbers don't seem impressive one bit. This was the first red flag.
But still, throwing caution to the wind, I dived into Fling anyway. As soon as you open Fling.com's homepage, you'll see the registration page to create your account. You simply fill out your basic details (first or last name, age, location, sexual orientation), very your identity through an email address so the site can see you're a real person, and then you're ready to get going. It was a very quick process, around 2 minutes at most (most usernames were taken though, so you might need to pull out the dictionary or thesaurus or make up a word or two).
Quite obviously, Fling had no pretensions about itself. It was clear that this site was invented for sex and nothing more. The site used a lot of synonyms and related terms onto their front page to get their point across. I'm sure you don't need any examples). A lot of profiles had explicit images and I was hit with a constant stream of cam girls inviting me to view their live streams. Some people might see this as a positive, but I found it a bit irritating. Overall, average first impressions going on negative.
Fling takes the conventional dating site approach, like Match, POF or OKCupid. There's no match making system like Tinder, so it's up to you to do your own flinging, so to speak. However, Fling.com has a very good search system, which made it easy to find potential flings.
Fling lets you search by age, country, area code, sexual preference and gender in its main search bar. From these results, Fling.com lets you narrow it down to users who are either online, have photos, have verified accounts or who are currently broadcasting an online stream. Advanced search options are even more detailed, allowing you to filter results by height, ethnicity, hair colour, body type and even eye colour. The advanced search options read like a dictionary, so pretty impressive, and no doubt you'll have no trouble finding your perfect Flinging relationship partner.
As mentioned, profiles are very adult oriented, but they offer quite a hefty amount of detail. Users are prompted to fill out written word answers from a bunch of drop down boxes, like body type, height, income, religion, preferred, language, job and living arrangements, and there's also an area for highlighting your hook up preferences. Are you looking for a one-off fling? A long-term fling? An experimental fling? You also have a word bio to write info about yourself too.
As I flung myself in deeper, I was surprised to find that there was a two of three interesting features available for premium users, and they all actually seemed really good. For example, video chat was one such option, (either one or two way chat) which allows you to speak face to face with your potential matches.
Fling Live Girls is the cam streams I mentioned. Fling.com has an affiliate parntership with a live cam company which can be viewed for free by premium users, or for a small fee (per cam viewing) for free members. Chat is available with the cams girls too, allowing you make specific requests.
Possibly the most unique feature on Fling is Sex Shop, where Fling.com has teamed up with a sex toy company to set up its own web store. Not only are sex toys on offer, but there's also adult videos, costumes, and pretty much everything adult-related for purchase. It's a nice addition which I've never actually seen anywhere else.
Lastly, and very modestly is the three month guarantee feature. Fling has a lot of confidence in its ability to hook you up with someone, and claims that if you don't get flung within three months of using the app, you'll get an aditional three month subscription for free! A pretty nice touch (although is possibly open to exploitation).
To get access to the good stuff, you'll need to upgrade to Fling's Gold Membership. Without upgrading, you can't view other members' profiles in full (only see their profile pic), text or video chat with them or view unlimited cam streams. Put simply, your flinging will be on hold until you've upgraded.
The price breakdown for the Fling Gold Membership is as follows:
1 month for $49.99
6 months for $89.99
12 months for $109.99
Yowzers, $49.99 for one month is terrible value. The 6 and 12 month packages aren't too bad, but they're still quite steep considering Fling isn't even one of the better hookup apps on the market. If you don't want to commit to a full membership straight away, you can sample Fling's two-day trial for $1.99 or their week-long trial for $13.99. Personally, I think that trial periods should always be free, but the two-day trial is probably the best value for money you'll get.
If you're looking for a no strings sexual relationship, you might be able to get flung on Fling.com. But despite what Fling says, there's no guarantees you'll get flung at all. It has a good amount of real users, which is a positive, but the disproportionate ratio of men to women means you gotta be very good looking to stand out from the crowd, or at least be skilled with your words.
The site body is simple to use and remains relatively uncluttered, allowing Fling to run on your desktop or mobile at a speedy pace. Registration is fast and easy, and profiles contain enough information to get a good idea of someone's personality.
Maybe the biggest advantage the site has is that everyone here is looking for the same thing as you - a fling, meaning that you don't have to worry about small talk or anything like that. You can simply get straight down to talking about your sex-only relationship. Likewise, cam girls flung themselves at me like crazy, so if you like it when women throw live stream opportunities at you, you'll enjoy that option.
For how long it's been around, Fling.com isn't what it should be. It lacks an active userbase (despite its claims of having millions of users) and it can be quite hard to actually get a conversation going with anyone. The majority of the users are male, so if you're a guy, be prepared for a little competition. Amazingly, getting flung is more difficult than it should be.
Although the site does a lot to prevent fake profiles, it's definitely not enough. Fake accounts often spam you with messages (some of which are disguised as advertisements), and others are simply scammers. You can see a fake profile on Fling a mile off because they either have exotic names like Crystal, their profile pictures are of stolen internet model pics or they conduct themselves in a very direct manner. The barrage of advertisements for the cam stream comes across as unnecessarily violent too.
The lack of a matching functionality on the site seems a little outdated. Most sites come with this feature as standard now, even non-swiping sites like OKCupid and POF have it, so to omit it entirely seems like a big oversight.
Lastly, Fling's steep subscription price won't attract any curious new visitors. It's simply too expensive, especially as a lot of new users won't be willing to purchase a 6 or 12 month package right from the off. This leaves them with the terribly expensive 1 month package, which is one of the highest priced I've seen for any app. The dictiontary states fling; verb - to throw something violently. Yeah, even the dictionary knows Fling's prices are ludicrious.
Fling.com is far from the best app for a casual sex relationship. If you can look past the fact that 80% of members are guys, and you're confident in your words to be able to stand out from the crowd, you might get some luck on Fling. However, even if you know your noun from your verb, it's not guaranteed you'll get flung. You need to move some serious messages to get any luck. But by all means, throw yourself into the trial period and see how far you get.
If you're a girl and you're looking for a purely sexual relationship, Fling will get you flung in no time Hell, you won't even need words. Guys will throw themselves at you time and time again. If you're desperate to get flung tonight, try one of the established apps out there. Give Fling a miss, unless you're willing to throw yourself in at Act 1 and hope for the best.
Fling, verb, noun, whatever kind of word it is, pull out a dictionary and find something else.