Friends can exchange messages and images. Users have a limited number of ‘swipes’ they can use unless they earn ‘gems’ or pay to subscribe to ‘Wink Plus’. They can also earn gems through watching adverts including for dating apps.
All Wink accounts are public or a user can pay for ‘incognito mode’ so their account is only seen by users they are interested in. Users can add photos, a bio, describe their interests and record a voice introduction. They can also pay to choose a ‘vibe’ such as ‘dates’ or ‘friendship’ to describe the kind of relationship they’re looking for or to use additional search options such as height, fitness and religion.
If a new user states they are under 18, their account is created for the Soda app rather than Wink. Soda looks like the Wink app and is for 13-17 years olds. To create a new Soda account, they must provide a photo, and state their preferences for meeting new people (gender and age (between 13 and 17). Soda displays potential profiles to accept, reject or message. Similar to Wink, Soda users can pay for additional search options such as height and fitness, or to use incognito mode.
There are no parental controls available on Wink but users can report inappropriate or harmful content or behaviour and block other users. Wink uses software to attempt to identify and remove inappropriate content e.g. nudity.
