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Whether you’re a lover of beards or the bearer of fuzzy face furniture yourself, Bristlr is an app made especially for you, and its popularity just keeps on growing.
This cool app is a one-of-a-kind dating app specifically targeted at fur fans (and let me stress, ‘fur’ not ‘furry’ … whole different beast there). The app matches up those with beards to fans of beards, or other beardy users.
At a first glance you might think this app is targeted solely at men with beards and the women that love a bit a face fuzz, but you couldn’t be more wrong. The cool thing about Bristlr is that the only targets are bearded individuals or fans of them. That means you can sign up and enjoy regardless of age, gender or sexual orientation. And no, not all of the men on there have to have beards.
With no pre-launch publicity or marketing, Bristlr just shows the power of the beard. Just months after launch an incredible 65,000 members signed up (including yours truly)! For an app that started out as a ‘fun idea’ that’s no small feat.
Bristlr works a little like other dating apps: you look through users and like each other, and if they like you back you can start chatting (or you can allow anyone to talk to you, if you want to keep things a little more open).
Stopping serial lotharios in their tracks
However, one of Bristlr’s coolest features is stopping serial lotharios in their tracks – if a user repeatedly copy and pastes the same message to various users, the recipients of the message will receive a quick heads up that they’ve been on the receiving end of a potential spammer.
Bristlr creator John Kershaw says, ‘If someone has said “Hey, how’s it going” to 5 people, that’s fine. But if they’re saying you’re the only one for them, and they’ve sent that to 50 people, that’s not going to fly.
‘When somebody gets a message that’s been copied and pasted, the message is sent as normal but there’s a warning underneath which will say something like “Just so you know, (name) has sent this exact message to at least (number) of other people.”’
Having been on the receiving end of such messages on other apps, it’s definitely a feature I’m happy to hear about!
With its wide-open demographic (that’s hopefully only going to grow with yours truly involved as brand ambassador) and cool features like the little copy-paste warning message in place to protect its users, Bristlr could be one of the most open and friendly dating apps out there. That incredibly open nature makes for a bright future for Bristlr, which is mighty impressive for an app that at its core targets quite a niche group.
Things are going well for the beards at Bristlr since the launch of the app in 2014, having already attracted tens of thousands of users in the UK, USA, Brazil, Holland and Canada with plans to expand even further. On top of thousands of daily active users and thousands of new sign ups every week, Bristlr has also seen over half a million sent messages and nearly quarter of a million beard ratings. Even if there had been a pre-launch marketing campaign, those are some mighty figures!
No smartphone? Use the web version
So beard fans, what are you waiting for? This is the app you’ve been waiting for! Fear not, for those of you without smartphones (or those on Windows Phones … I’m one of those unlucky few) the app works exactly the same if used via a browser so there’s no excuse for missing out!
Whether you’re looking to trade beard keeping secrets (just what is the best brand of beard oil?), chat about all things beardy, admire the beautiful beards out there or you’re just looking for bristly love, you’ll find it all on Bristlr! So go join in the fuzzy fun (and say hello if you see me!).
Find out what all the furry fuss is about at bristlr.com.
