DoingSomething wins the Matchmaker of the Year #ShinyShinyAwards

ShinyShiny readers voted for DoingSomething for its completely unique and fun approach to online dating, as well as the fact that, as a membership-only website, it’s much less creep-friendly than the free ones. Then there are the incredible dating events that DoingSomething holds, like Giant Twister and Sleepover at The Shard. The website works around date ideas, rather than looks (although that’s obviously a big part of it too, let’s be honest). So, you come up with a fun date idea – because there are only so many bars you can go on dates at – and choose from other people’s date ideas too. It’s not so great for people outside the capital, but Londoners clearly love it. And so do we.

Highly Commended: Tinder

While Tinder has had a bad rap this year, with gross messages from men and women alike, it’s clearly still a very popular dating app, as it was voted second by our readers. You probably know this by now, but the swiping game of a dating app works with your Facebook account and location, showing you pictures of potential dates, mutual friends and interests, letting you swipe right for yes and left for no. If you both swipe right, you’re connected and can chat. In a very short time, its simple approach has seen it become one of the most popular dating apps of all time, and its approach has been copied in all kinds of other apps. Good, but not your favourite, apparently.

Honourable mentions

Happn

Happn shows you a list of everyone else with the app that’s walked past you during the day, plotted with times on a map. If you have any mutual Facebook friends or interests, it’ll show you those, and you can say yes or no. Like Tinder, if you both give each other a like, you get chatting, and hopefully magic happens. Maybe too similar to Tinder, and not as well-known enough to have won this year, but there’s always next!

Smeeters

More of a dating experience than a dating app, Smeeters works by matching up two groups of existing friends – three guys and three girls – based on their profiles. Both groups meet up in a London bar with the first round of drinks included in the £15 fee, and from then on, it’s all down to fate. A great way to meet people without the pressure of going it alone.

Dattch

Big dating sites aren’t always a great experience for lesbian and bisexual women. From sites that won’t let you sign up as bi (one of our writers was told to sign up twice: once as straight, and again as gay!) to gross comments, threesome-seeking couples and men in disguise, it’s a minefield. Dattch aims to be a safer dating space, built for women by women. It’s free, and profiles are verified to check for blokey lurkers.

A very well done to DoingSomething and Tinder – we’d swipe right for you both.