Tea App: Inside the controversial women-only platform that is dividing the internet and worrying men

There’s a new dating app that’s going viral, but this one isn’t about finding matches, rather avoiding them. The Tea dating app is gaining notoriety in 2025, and its use has become exceedingly controversial.

But what is the Tea App? It's an app designed to help women review their dates in advance, allowing them to look at what other women have said about a potential partner before they decide to trust them.

The Tea app offers to help women find red flags in their dating partner and make a more informed decision on whether they want to give someone a chance.

This assessment is based on what their previous partners have had to say about the men, essentially helping women conduct a background check or get a more detailed resume to look over.

The Tea dating app was launched back in 2023 by Sean Cook, after he personally witnessed how unsafe the dating world could be for women. It was prompted by his mother’s terrifying encounters with men, some who even had criminal records.

Understanding how the modern dating world had made people more accessible to each other without setting in the right measures in place to ensure these connections were safe, he took it upon himself to create a space that prioritized women’s safety.

Partnering with social media influencer Daniella Szetela, who is now the social media director for the app, he used his experience in the tech industry to “revolutionize dating safety by equipping women with cutting-edge tools, real-time insights, and a powerful community to navigate the modern dating world with confidence and control.”

Essentially, he built Tea to give women the power to share their experiences with their past dating partners and conduct a more thorough review of prospective ones.

While the app has been around for a while, it recently went viral, as most things do, on TikTok. Users began popularizing the platform and recommending it to followers, and others began discrediting it and recommending that the app be taken down.

While many women have applauded the app, others have pointed out that it can easily be misused for misandry and spreading misinformation about someone.

An important feature about the Tea app is its anonymous review platform that can be accessed exclusively by women, where users can leave their feedback on men they have dated and some of the issues they have had with them.

From cheating to violence in their relationships, women can help other women make safer dating decisions through their own experiences.

Apart from helping women review dates, the Tea app also has features like reverse image search to help women check if they are being catfished by someone who has stolen an identity, or conduct background checks to see if someone has a criminal record they should be aware of.

While many men online saw the point of how the app might protect women, a number of people have expressed worry about the fairness and the legality of it all, ranging from the philosophical to the personal.

"The risk of abuse is insanely high,” said one Redditor in a discussion. “It seems pretty socially deleterious if any human can have a social media profile they can’t view created for them without their consent or knowledge."

The app also features a “Tea Party Group Chat,” which allows users to directly share information about men, and has a rating function, which allows users to share their experiences with Yelp-style reviews, awarding men a “green flag” or a “red flag.”

The inclusion of men’s names, identities, and other information has triggered people to ask: Does the app enable users to violate others’ privacy rights?

Some men have complained that the very act of enabling users to post photos of them online without their consent violates their privacy rights.

While Tea is focused on women's dating, it joins the ranks of viral anonymous apps — such as Yik Yak and AskFM — that have, in many instances, been criticized for their potential to foster cyberbullying and harassment.

In its analysis, PeakMetrics wrote that a "significant theme" in online discussions on Reddit was the app's ethical implications, "particularly regarding privacy and the potential for defamation."

PeakMetrics added that while some online had praised the app as a way to expose harmful behavior, Tea had also "sparked debates about fairness and the potential for false accusations, reflecting broader societal discussions on gender and safety."