WhosHere

Free, from Apple’s App Store. Excellent for finding guys in Singapore and the region.

This app promotes itself as the next best thing to having men wear “I’m available” signboards around their necks. It allows you to spot single men in your vicinity.
  
That it was easy to use scored points with me. I simply filled up my profile sheet with a picture from my iPhone photo album, keyed in my interests, and the kind of men I was looking for. There was even a useful “Jerk Filter” to block out idiots. And I didn’t have to give my e-mail address to sign up.
  
The variety of men offered was mind-boggling; the ratio of men to women on the app is 10 to one. I didn’t set a distance limit, so I received messages from local bankers, engineers, pilots and IT executives, as well as an entrepreneur in Saudi Arabia, a policeman from Shanghai, a cafe owner in Kuala Lumpur and a costumed ninja from Seoul. Most of the men were game enough to put up their real pictures – and many of them were cuter than you would expect.
  
All in all, I received messages from 132 men over a three-week period, like Andy, a 28-year-old executive trying to get lucky on the app behind his wife’s back, and Adrian, a 30-year-old IT guy who basically had a breathless, one-sided conversation with himself:

March 19, 3AM
Hi
March 19, 7:52AM
Morning free tonight?
March 19, 8:37AM
Morning free tonight?
March 19, 9:30AM
Where u now? Free? Meet?
March 19, 9:31AM
??
March 19, 12PM
Where u now?
March 19, 12:15PM
??
March 19, 5PM
Dinner?
March 19, 11:30PM
Free tml? Coffee?
March 20, 7AM
Breakfast?
March 20, 9:31AM
At work? Or home? Free?
Coffee? Movie?
March 20, 3PM
Coffee tonite?
March 20, 7PM
Drive? Beach?
March 21, 2PM
Hi free tonite?

But I won’t deny that I had a few meaningful conversations with some of the men, like Kelvin, a 35-year-old investment banker from KL. We recommended good books to each other and chatted about our jobs.

However, I’m pretty sure the distances stated on the app between the men and I weren’t accurate – I got messages like “You’re pretty near me right now, just 1km away!!!” when I was in Aljunied and he was in town.

This app is great if you want to meet local men. It’s definitely better than attending dating events – the men are hotter and you can always use the Jerk Filter if you run into the occasional weirdo.

<< Back: Calling Mr Right Part 2

1. For more of this story, get a copy of the June 2010 issue of Her World, Singapore’s No. 1 women’s magazine. Her World is published by SPH Magazines and is available at all newsstands now. 2. Zarelda Marie Goh is a features writer with Her World magazine by SPH Magazines. 3. Check out more stories at Her World online, www.herworld.com