Both apps attracted significant attention after going viral earlier this year. Initially released in 2023, Tea became popular in 2025 and was created as a dating safety app for women. It enabled women to post information about men, such as personal information, user-style reviews, as well as ‘green flag’ or ‘red flag’ ratings. Many men criticised the app, questioning whether sharing such information could amount to defamation and expressing concerns about privacy intrusions.
The app’s popularity came with a cost. Over the summer, Tea suffered a data breach exposing 72,000 images, including 3,000 selfies and photo IDs submitted for account verification, along with 59,000 images from posts, comments and direct messages.
Another app, TeaOnHer, later emerged to let men post reviews about women in a similar format. Yet, it too faced safety issues, with reports in August 2025 revealing that users’ personal information, including government IDs and selfies, had been compromised, according to TechCrunch.
