Tea Is the Top Free App Right Now. What It Is and Why So Many Women Are Using It

CNET

5 days ago

Ask any single woman right now, and they'd probably tell you how rough it is in the dating world. With ghosting and misleading bios, it can be challenging to know who you're really talking to on dating apps -- and whether they're telling you the truth.
Tea is an app that allows women to anonymously review men and spill "the tea" on men they've dated. Around 1 million women have started using the app in the past week. It's reminiscent of those Facebook "Are We Dating the Same Guy?" groups that many cities have, except this app uses AI to verify that the people making profiles are women.
Tea has become a viral sensation in the last few weeks -- for good and bad reasons.
The app experienced a security breach revealed on Friday, in which data, including women's driver's licenses and selfies, was posted to 4chan. The breach is reportedly the result of Tea's unsecured database. The company confirmed to CNET that unauthorized access to its systems had occurred.
What is the Tea app?
Tea is a free, women-only app exclusive to the US. It's not a dating app; it's a tool that women use in addition to their dating apps. It's a space where you can share negative interactions while dating, and solicit feedback on specific men you date to expose potential risks and protect other women.
It was founded in 2023 by Sean Cook, who cites his mother getting catfished online as the motivation for the app. Tea has taken off in the last week, gaining over a million users in that time. According to a social media post from Tea, the app has around 4 million users. It's the top free app in the App Store right now.
Tea is intended to function as a community that keeps women safe, something that traditional dating apps lack. With candid reviews and warnings from other women about people they've dated, Tea offers women the security of having a better idea of who they're dating.
When you open the app, you'll see local men in your area whose pictures have been uploaded. You'll also see if the man was labeled as a red or green flag, and any comments left by other women.
You can look up specific names in the search bar and create alerts for names. The app's capabilities aren't limited to comments about a man's "red flags." Tea can also reverse-search photos to catch catfishers through Tea's Catfish Finder AI, run background checks, check for criminal histories and public records and look up phone numbers.
Additionally, you can post questions and polls on the Tea app. According to Tea's website, 10% of its profits go to the National Domestic Violence Hotline.
How does Tea know if I'm a woman?
Not just anyone can join the Tea app -- it's for women only. When you make an account, you'll be asked to provide your location, birth date and a picture of your ID or a selfie to verify that you're a woman. Then you wait to be approved, which people are saying can take days from the influx of new users.
The Tea app uses AI to verify your identity and ensure you're a woman. Once approved, you're anonymous apart from the username you choose. Tea uses SafeSip AI as a moderation tool that detects and removes harmful content from the app to ensure it stays a safe space for women.
Can I join Tea if I'm not a woman?
You can't join the Tea app if you're not a woman. However, uploading a picture to ensure you're a woman is far from a bulletproof way to ensure only women join the app. With filters or AI tools, it's not clear how often Tea catches things like that.
What are the security risks of Tea?
Tea presents as a safe space to share information because you can't screenshot in the app, you're anonymous and it's verified that all accounts are women.
However, the data breach shows us just how fragile something like this can be. Tea confirmed on Friday that there was unauthorized access to its legacy data storage system. Approximately 72,000 images were exposed, including 13,000 images of selfies and photo identification women submitted to make an account, and 59,000 images publicly viewable in the app from posts, comments and direct messages.
Tea told CNET that the company has engaged third-party cybersecurity experts to secure its systems.
The concept of Tea is to keep women safe and give them a space to share negative experiences so that others don't have to go through the same thing. However, there has also been backlash about whether the app violates men's privacy. On forums like Reddit, some men have shared that posts about them on the app have been false or misleading, and since they're not allowed on the app, they cannot engage to correct the posts.
In the same way that it could be a safe place for women to share information to keep each other safe, it could potentially become a space where misinformation runs rampant and personal information is shared.
Tea didn't immediately respond to a request for comment on the potential for misinformation being spread on its platform, or of the allegations of privacy violations against men. We have also asked Tea whether the platform is heterosexually geared only.