Tea app: What’s the tea on dating safety?

Tea is an app that describes itself as a platform “to give women the tools they need to date safely in a world that often overlooks their protection”. The app is mainly geared toward women dating men, to provide a space where anonymous users can post photos, names and descriptions about specific men in the area. The app has surfaced in the campus community and students are using it to share their experiences with specific people in the local dating scene.

The app was part of a data breach that took place in July 2025. The breach occurred due to unauthorized access to a legal data system and ultimately led to the app’s removal from the Apple App Store on Oct. 21, but it is still available on Google Play. On Nov. 17, a representative for the San Francisco based app, announced in a message on the app that changes are underway.

“While the app will change, we’re launching a web app version of Tea that will feel exactly like the Tea you know and love with the same safe space to share your dating experience.”

Dating gone digital

Nowadays, the internet has created an opportunity to not only date, but receive information about who you’re interested in with the click of a button. Tea quickly gained popularity after its launch in 2023 and since its release, over 6 million have joined.

“Tea is my new secret weapon. Whenever I’m about to meet up with someone, I open Tea and find all my answers,” said Tea user FlightsNotFeelings, who was featured on the app’s site.

Those being posted on the app have a different experience than the users do.

“I’m not mad about someone having an opinion of me,” said an anonymous Arcata resident who has been posted on the app. This source did share that he had an issue with what was being said about his sexuality in the comments. “It’s a little hurtful that [commenters] would immediately address an element to my sexuality.”

Following comments that alleged the source of love-bombing and being performative, he turned away from dating apps.

“It makes me look at myself and realize that I have to figure out what I want and what I need and especially what someone else also needs,” he said.

Sip carefully

According to the app’s website, you must be 18 and older to use the app and community guidelines encourage keeping things factual, private, respectful and clean. With an anonymous public forum, users can easily spread misinformation.

“There’s a lot of things that can be misconstrued so it does make it hard for actual validity,” said Nevada Gomes, a psychology major and Tea user. “I don’t know these people. I don’t know when they had their experiences or how much of it is actually true.”

Gomes encourages people on the app to “take it with a grain of salt.” Not only is the Tea app facing class action lawsuits because of the data breach, but defamation lawsuits have also been threatened.

Ashton Reed, an anthropology major, found out he was posted on the app through a mutual friend.

“I was scared and then once I saw it, I was like okay, whatever,” Reed said. Reed shared that his initial fear stemmed from the possibility of
unreliable sources.

“People are willing to go to lengths to lie about said person because they’re upset with them,” Reed said.

Cup half full or half empty?

Dating in a small town like Arcata can be difficult. Reed described dating in Humboldt County in one word, “funky.”

“In a big city, you could be a really messed up person. You could be a demon and just get lost in anonymity, but up here you see your exes, you see people you’ve hooked up with and you have to sort of confront that,” Reed said.

Corrie Leyba, a CPH student and user of the app, described it as a “mutual girlhood of spilling the tea and making sure you know who is bad news, or people’s experiences with them.”

Community guidelines for the Tea app state that “Tea is a private space for women to connect and support one another.” While some may have created or strengthened their sense of girlhood, others have been caught in the crossfire of the comment section. Gomes was one of them.

About a month ago, a user created a post of someone in Gomes’ social circle. One of the comments on the post referenced Gomes as “Nevada the leader” and accused her of helping “draw in more victims” for this person.

“I feel like that in itself is a good example of misogyny,” Gomes said. “You’re telling me I’m not a girl’s girl, but I’m getting dragged under the bus for something I didn’t do.”

While the app is facing uncertainty with how it will progress, a representative sent out an update message to users in the app,“our commitment to you hasn’t changed. We started Tea to help women date more safely, and we’re going to keep doing everything we can to support that mission.”