Sharing These Details About Celebrity Dating App Raya Got Me Banned

I wrote about my experience with dating app Raya about a year ago, and since then, some — well, two — interesting things have happened because of the story.

You can read the original article about my experience here: I Tried Celebrity Dating App Raya for a Month, and It Was Underwhelming at Best, but if you’re happy staying and scrolling this one, the TL;DR of it is that I wasn’t impressed.

What Is Raya Dating App?

If you’re not familiar with Raya, it’s often called a “celebrity dating app” because of how many have been spotted on it. Amy Schumer met her furniture designer ex Ben Hanisch on it. And Matthew Perry and Ben Affleck were both recorded reaching out to users they’d matched with on the app.

Yes, there were celebrities on it — American A-listers because it turns out the app shows you people around the world — but no, I didn’t match with any. Or take screenshots of the celebrities I saw. Because once I took one, I got a pop-up warning saying I’d be booted off if I kept screenshotting. I also hadn’t realised you had to pay for the app either — a monthly fee. Even then, it limits your daily swipes.

Another negative (in my eyes)? The app had a map of my city, Sydney, which showed profiles of other Raya users — women, too, even though I’m straight and had marked so on the app. I didn’t like the idea of other users who I’d never swipe on seeing my profile — it felt vulnerable and unnecessary.

One thing I did like, though, was that everyone’s Instagram was listed. That made it easy for me to digitally stalk people — they all had public profiles — and get a better idea of who they were. It was also handy as I could save my limited daily swipes and, if I was feeling bold, add them on Instagram instead.

Before I go any further, as you might’ve guessed, I’m a normie. I think that’s the best word for what I mean. In other words, not a person in the public eye. So, that almost definitely played into my experience with the app. Had I been, well, someone else, I might’ve had a different experience with Raya.

What’s Happened Since I Wrote About Raya?

Anyway, that’s a summary of my honest review of Raya, and below are the two unexpected things that happened to me since sharing those thoughts.

I Get Monthly DMs Asking For Referrals

The first surprise: since the article was published, I’ve gotten probably about 25 people slide into my Instagram DMs asking me to refer them to Raya. They’re mostly from the US, and one had a following of over 115k and still hadn’t been accepted to the app.

To be fair, I had said in the article that once I was accepted to Raya, I’d gone on to refer several friends who’d all gotten accepted within days. So, it wasn’t completely random for these strangers to be asking me to refer them. But still, I found it quite funny to read: “sorry you didn’t have a good experience, but can you send me a referral thank you”.

I Got Banned From the App

All the referral requests eventually gave me FOMO for Raya. I had access to the app so many wanted to be on – why wasn’t I using it? I decided I wanted to give it another go and so re-downloaded it. I tapped that I had an existing account and was logging back in, entered my phone number and then the code I was sent, and then bam.

I was hit with a message saying that basically Raya’s community managers had decided not to renew my membership. “Thank you for your support and involvement,” the message finished. In other words, I was kindly let go.

My little ol’ article in Australia had made it to the Raya bigwigs who’d decided someone not the biggest fan of the app shouldn’t actually be allowed on the app. Which is… fair.

Still, though, despite what I wrote and still do think about Raya, I do wish I still had access to it. Not to potentially start charging for referrals (kidding), but because, well, who doesn’t want to be part of an exclusive group? I’m a sucker for anything VIP. So, in that vein, yes, I do somewhat regret spilling the beans.