Inner Circle
Inner Circle dating app
‘It’s time to stop swiping and start meeting,’ say the creators of Inner Circle. Less superficiality, more depth and with one goal: to find true love and leave the platform together. With this romantic attitude, the app has impressed the target group of ‘serious singles’. Because the creators of the app realized early on that singles with substance were looking for something more than a meat inspection, they came up with Inner Circle.
That is also the reason why swiping is not possible on this selective dating app. Because not everyone is admitted to Inner Circle: only those who meet the requirements get access to the range of singles. What do you have to meet? They keep that a secret, but we have an idea. And we’ll tell you more about it.
Inner Circle was launched in 2012 and in all those years it has grown into a fairly well-known, Dutch dating app for elite singles – although they don’t put the word “elite” in Inner Circle’s mouth anymore. Unfortunately, that also means that not everyone is accepted. Have you been rejected? Or is Inner Circle not what you’re looking for?
Who is it for?
Inner Circle chose this mysterious name for a reason. When we talk about an inner circle, we are talking about a small, intimate group of people. And as we all know, not everyone is admitted to the inner circle – so also with the app. In other words, not everyone is welcome to use dating app Inner Circle. It has given Inner Circle an interesting nickname: “elite dating app.
On the dating app, you will only meet singles who are successful, highly educated, and in a way attractive. At least, that’s how the dating app is known to many. But the founders of the app don’t go along with that. They themselves believe that the app has a much broader target audience. According to Inner Circle, the platform is “accessible to anyone looking for serious love. So there are requirements that you have to meet, but it is not just for the elite.
Because not only the upper class can become members, but actually anyone with good intentions, your level of education doesn’t really matter. What they do look at? Your position and your ambition level, partly because they mainly bring together singles with a stable basis and serious potential for love.
The screening
Inner Circle is for serious singles who want to find like minded people. It is a misconception that you are selected solely on your appearance. The exact ingredients needed to be admitted are not published. Although the app does not release much information about the exact list of conditions, it should be clear that with a bared upper body as your profile picture, you have little chance. The same goes for applications that do not have clear photos and hide themselves behind hats, caps and sunglasses. What does give a higher chance of admission? Having as realistic a picture of yourself as possible. The staff of the app is mainly concerned with the right intentions.
How does it work?
Inner Circle is a dating app with a serious character. You’ll soon find out when you download and install the app on your smartphone. Signing up is only possible with your Facebook or LinkedIn account which is immediately a form of verification. After that, during the registration, the process stops: your profile is first screened before you can “get to work”. As easy as it would be to instantly scroll through profiles, Inner Circle – as one of the few dating apps – has a generous wait time thanks to this screening.
Meanwhile, Inner Circle does ask you to complete your profile. So while you’ve ended up in the queue, you can still edit your profile. This gives the app’s staff more information to verify and review your profile. For example, you can add more photos to your profile, write a little about yourself, fill out your job title, and also share more information about yourself. Are you an early riser? A board game player? Or an all-you-can-eat home cook? You can share it all in your dating profile. All of this entered information is used by the staff to determine if you can become a member. Everyone who is accepted into Inner Circle receives a confirmation email from one of the staff members. This is basically the starting signal to really get started on the app. Once you are admitted you get access to the full app, including all other people’s profiles, events and places. This is also the time when your profile is ready to be shown to other users. They can find your profile in the search results and vice versa. In addition, you get access to the different parts of the app: Discover, Activity, Members and your own profile.
Search
In the ‘Members’ section of the app, you can search for your ideal match. You can search by online members, members who are new or the most popular option: nearby. Also, start wisely by immediately adjusting the search filters to your needs. Moreover, you can make yourself invisible to people who do not fall within your age group – for example, if you are looking for someone between 27 and 42 years old, but definitely not younger or older. All these search filters will make it faster to find someone who meets your requirements. Don’t want to talk to anyone who smokes? With the Smoking filter you exclude anyone who does smoke. Want to use even more filters? You can, but then you need a Full Membership.Once the filters are set, the search for relationship material can begin. The singles that meet your requirements are then displayed one by one with only the most important details of the user. Does a profile catch your eye? Tap on the blue heart and then we can wait and see if the interest is mutual.
Sending messages
A dating app cannot do without communication between its members. After all, otherwise it would just be a strange experience, similar to a digital photo album. Inner Circle has a fairly simple chat system that can be found in the Activity section. In this part of the app you will find your Matches, Likes and Messages. With this messaging system it is possible to chat 1-on-1, where pictures can also be sent.Additional features
Where many dating apps opt for swiping, this is not possible with Inner Circle. Instead, Inner Circle does have a similar feature that produces more or less the same result. When you view a profile of another member, you can like the profile by tapping the heart. By doing so you indicate that you like this person. But does the other person like you too? You will only find out if you have a Match, when the other person also likes your profile.Another feature that enriches the use of Inner Circle is the Discover section of the app. Unlike many other dating apps, Inner Circle has an in-app experience for locations and places to visit. When events are scheduled by Inner Circle, they can be viewed in this section. And in addition, this section of the app also shows hotspots: bars, cafes, clubs and vacation destinations.
Free or paid
Everyone who joins Inner Circle starts as a free member. According to Inner Circle, the app is free to download, and always will be. Creating a profile, adding photos, having it screened and searching among other members can all be done for free. As a free member, you have access to most of the Inner Circle app’s features, but with limitations. Those who want to use all possible options of the Inner Circle app can purchase a subscription: Called Full Membership. The offer? For the amount of 10 euros you can enjoy all the benefits of the Full Membership for 1 week. Please note that after this week the subscription will automatically be renewed for one month at 39.99 euros.About Inner Circle
Although Inner Circle is not as well known as Tinder, it already existed when this app was founded. The founding of Inner Circle goes back to the year 2012, when one of the founders was looking for a partner himself. But what he found out most of all? That this is not so easy when you have a lot of profiles to deal with, while only some of them appeal to you. The founder and current CEO, David Vermeulen, thought it could be done better. It was this idea that led to the birth of Inner Circle.Along with two others, Michael Krayenhoff (COO) and Serge Samusya (CTO), Inner Circle was founded in 2012. What started as a fairly normal dating site that was not mobile-friendly ended up being a dating app success story. In their own words, they break the “tiresome and eternal swiping” by not only connecting members with each other, but also by organizing events every month (around the world) to connect like-minded people.
The app now has more than 2.5 million users worldwide and more than 10,000 couples have met thanks to the app. Currently Inner Circle is active in 37 mainly major cities in 26 countries.