Have you ever wanted to grab your friend's phone and seize control of their disastrous dating life? And that’s how Wingman came to be. The app’s creator is a London-based woman who wanted to create an easy way for friends to recommend dates. Clearly there are a lot of people who are too shy or nervous to do all the self-promotion required by dating apps, but this isn’t just for them. Occasionally, it’s nice to take a break and tag someone else into the ring. If this still sounds strange, consider that professional matchmakers charge hundreds of dollars to clients looking for a little romantic help. You could probably con your friends into participating by buying them some pizza.
– Tired of the online dating world? Let your friends do the searching and swiping. So says Tina Wilson, a Londoner who found after a breakup that her friends were trying to play matchmaker, but that they didn't have any good tools to find someone for her online, reports Mashable. So she started her own, an app called Wingman, which works much like many dating apps but requires the participation of both the person who will be doing the dating and the friend who will be doing the deciding. The dater can't write his or her own profile or make his or her own connections with other potential daters—only the "wingman" can. The app has been up and running in the UK for a few years now, but is just being released in the US. In practice, at least so far, mostly women are doing the matchmaking, but there is a pretty even number of men and women daters. And having a friend involved serves as a confidence-booster, too, reports the Verge. Friends tend to write lovely, flattering profiles, and they are the ones to "absorb" the rejections that the person doing the dating will never have to see. One woman describes it being a real help when her mother and sister took the reigns after she moved to a new city and didn't know anyone. (Most of the 4,500 online dating sites and apps are tiny.)