What Is The Tea App And Who Is It For?

Online dating has its perks, but let's be honest, it can feel like a minefield. Between fake profiles, shady pasts, and the risk of matching with someone dangerous, it's no wonder many women feel uneasy swiping through strangers. That's exactly where the Tea app comes in. Launched in 2023, Tea is a crowdsourced review platform built to help women look up men before meeting them.

In July 2025, Tea surged to No. 1 on Apple's App Store, racking up millions of downloads almost overnight. The idea was to let women share anonymous reviews of men they've dated. Interestingly, Tea stands out by offering tools like background checks, reverse image searches, and phone number lookups. So the app is all about giving women more control, transparency, and, most importantly, safety in the dating world. But it ran into trouble when a data breach exposed thousands of user files, showing both how useful and risky it can be to store personal information.

Tea was founded by Sean Cook, a former Salesforce employee. He saw his mother's troubling experiences with online dating, inspiring him to come up with this innovative idea. She had unknowingly interacted with men who hid disturbing backgrounds. This even included people with criminal histories. That experience pushed Cook to build a platform that could offer women a way to learn more about people before meeting them. On Tea, users can look up a name, phone number, or city to see what others have shared. Each review must include basic details like the man's name and age, and the poster has to confirm that their account is honest.

To protect its community, Tea verifies that each user is a woman through a selfie submission during signup. It also bans screenshots by blacking out the app screen when a capture is attempted. Furthermore, the posts can be flagged with red or green icons to signal warnings or approval. While the basic features are free, users can unlock unlimited background checks and other tools by paying $15 per month or referring friends. Tea currently has over 4 million users and donates 10% of its profits to the National Domestic Violence Hotline.

Despite its mission to promote safety, Tea hasn't avoided controversy. In July 2025, the company experienced a data breach that exposed selfies, IDs, posts, and direct messages from around 72,000 early users. The breach involved the data from February 2024, and no emails or phone numbers were leaked. The company says it has since upgraded its security systems. That said, the incident raised concerns about privacy and data protection. 

Attorney Aaron Minc, in an interview with The Hindu newspaper, compared the platform to "everyone having their own Yelp page," cautioning that false or misleading posts might have legal consequences. Still, many users argue that Tea fills a gap left by traditional dating apps, which often lack meaningful safety tools. For instance, most platforms like Tinder rely on reactive features such as blocking or reporting after a bad encounter. They can also impose temporary bans and permanent suspensions, depending on the violations. On the other side, Tea focuses on giving women more information before meeting someone. Safety has become a major priority in online dating, and Tea's rise might signal a shift in what users now expect.