Taking Ohio University’s campus by storm, the new and free to download Tea Dating Advice app is creating a frenzy among students.
Originally designed to deter women from men who appear on the app, Tea ensures anonymity. With nearly 150,000 ratings and 4.5 stars, users can share and receive information on the men roaming their local campus.
Users can post images of men, and others can decorate the posted profiles, donning men with green or red flags and releasing alleged rumors or “tea” about them.
“Tea was born from a deeply personal mission — to give women the tools they need to date safely in a world that often overlooks their protection,” states the Tea for Women website.
Initially released in 2023, the app didn’t see a surge in popularity until summer 2025.
Shamaiyah Bradley, a junior studying social work, originally heard about the app this past July.
“I think it is informative, I have the app … and it’s usually just like, 'Oh, is this guy a good guy? I’m talking to him’ or ‘this guy did this to me,’” Bradley said.
Despite Bradley saying the app is currently popular, she is unsure how long the craze will last.
“I think it will die down, but I don’t think it’s going to disappear,” Bradley said.
Like Bradley, Ellie Patrick, a sophomore studying marketing, said she also heard about the app over the summer and downloaded it out of curiosity.
“I really didn’t think much of it, but my friends were talking about it, so I ended up downloading it to see what it was about,” Patrick said. “I think it just has had such a big rush right now that so many people are getting posted … so I think eventually it will die down.”
Patrick said she is not on the app very often and shares conflicting views regarding its safety.
“I want to say it's informative, but I think it’s also really toxic and there is a lot of gossip,” she said. “What if the roles were reversed, girls would be saying it’s really toxic. I do think it can spread misinformation, but it could also be informative, too.”
Colin Haggerty, a sophomore studying finance, spoke about the app from a male perspective.
“I just think it’s whatever the kids make it,” Haggerty said. “I guess it could be poisonous, but it could also just be like, ‘hey, stay away from this dude, he’s weird.’”
Haggerty said the app could be detrimental to students' mental health.
“I wouldn’t want to be a dude and hear my name is on the Tea app personally, about how bad a person I am,” Haggerty said.
Patrick shares a similar view to Haggerty and said the app can impact personalities and limit growth.
“If someone has a bad past, I am a firm believer that people can change,” she said. “I think this app would maybe stop someone from that or affect their progress with that.”
Although it is receiving mixed reviews on campus, Tea for Women said the app has helped over 5.7 million women make safer dating decisions, pushing Tea to the number one spot on the app store.
Originally designed to protect women, the Tea app straddles a fine line between promoting women’s safety in dating and creating a potentially toxic online space of gossiping and rumor spreading.
“I don’t think it's a bad app,” Bradley said. “Every app is whatever; it’s just how people use it.”
