Tea Dating Advice, a women-only app that exploded in popularity in July 2025 thanks to TikTok, was initially praised as a breakthrough for helping women avoid unsafe men and navigate dating more securely.

Described as a Yelp-style platform, Tea lets women anonymously rate and review men they’re dating or have dated, and request “tea”, gossip or red flags, from others. Whether it’s venting about a bad Tinder experience or sharing warnings, the app created a space for candid discussions.

Equipped with AI-driven tools, Tea offers background checks, reverse image searches, sex offender registry lookups, and even lets users set alerts for specific names, aiming to help women spot potential risks in today’s often chaotic dating world.

While it rose quickly to prominence, Tea’s success has been matched by swift backlash. Critics, including Dazed magazine, warned the app flirts with “digital vigilantism” by allowing users to post men’s photos without consent, sparking serious privacy concerns.

Initially launched quietly in 2023 by tech entrepreneur Sean Cook, the app stayed relatively low-profile until it skyrocketed to No. 1 on the U.S. Apple App Store in early July 2025, a rise now shadowed by growing controversy.