3 things to know about the exclusive ‘Raya’ app

More selective dating apps start to emerge

Personalities such as Trevor Noah, Amy Schumer and Kelly Osbourne allegedly use an exclusive dating app called Raya. Here are a few things to know:

1. You have to be approved by a committee

According to this article in US Weekly:

To use Raya, which bills itself as “an exclusive dating and networking platform for people in creative industries,” one must first be approved by an anonymous committee. (Acceptance is also reportedly based, in part, on each potential dater’s Instagram presence, according to the Cut.)

Other celebs who have tapped the app include Jeremy Piven, Matthew Perry and Chelsea Handler. “I go on dating apps all the time!” Handler, 41, told Extra in May, noting she’s also tried Tinder and Bumble. “It’s so much fun.”

2. Some people say it creates ‘high school’ style drama

According to this article in Broadly:

People love to hate Raya; in July, Vogue writer Karley Sciortino compared the app to high school, “where the hierarchy of popularity is superficial and undeserved.” Raya users, according to her, are either conventionally attractive, come from wealthy backgrounds, or know how to put together the perfect ensemble. She claims that, like at SoHo House, the crowd is more obsessed with being part of the cool clique than being unique. The app allegedly counts Amy Schumer, Trevor Noah, Kelly Osbourne, Joe Jonas and Matthew Perry as users, adding to the supposed thrill of swiping left on a celeb you hate while drunk at home watching Netflix.

3. Many of the celebrities aren’t real celebrities

According to this article in Vogue:

But do we really believe that exclusivity makes something better? Sure, it’s sort of cool to swipe past lesser celebs while drunkenly prowling for sex on your phone, but you’re probably never going to sleep with those people. And the celebrities don’t represent the whole. In reality, Raya is full of C-List models, social-media managers who for some reason have a ton of arty photos of themselves emerging from the ocean, people named Wolf, people whose bios say things like “racing driver living between Monaco and Tokyo,” and, like, a million dudes who claim to be successful fashion photographers, but in reality have less Instagram followers than some dogs I know.