Sweater weather means more nights on the couch together, which also means more nights watching your partner's phone light up next to you. If their screen keeps lighting up with notifications from apps you don't recognize, sweater weather might come with a side of suspicion. Some of those apps could be a lot more than a way to make new friends before the holidays. The obvious suspects like Tinder or Bumble are easy to recognize.
But there's an entire ecosystem of hidden cheating apps on Android or iPhone that look like social networking for making new friends, but are actually just traditional dating platforms.
1. Monkey: Face-to-face video chats with strangers (and none of them want friendship)
- Free, with Monkey Plus ($13.99/month) and Plus+ ($27.99/month) tiers
- Available on Android; iOS access is web-only since Apple pulled the native app
Monkey seemed like a normal social networking app at first, until it went X-rated. The app is all about live streaming with strangers. It's eerily similar to Omele (if you remember what that was) in that you video chat with other people online. The difference here is that you can accept or reject a chat.
You sign in with your email, tap look for a match, and the app starts scanning people online. It cycles through everyone who meets your criteria, showing you a new potential match every 5 seconds if you don't accept the call.
Image: Jessica Santero | WhistleOut
While scanning, I saw Sam, Josh, and Abu pop up, but then things went south. LongDckPneGrnde definitely didn't seem like he was looking for friends. I settled on a match with Nick, someone close to my age. When he connected with his camera off, I was instantly wary. He then started talking about certain engorged appendages, and it was confirmed: Monkey is used as a dating app (or a hookup app) without a shadow of a doubt.
Image: Jessica Santero | WhistleOut
Monkey Plus is $13.99/month, and Monkey Plus+ is $27.99/month. That's a lot of cash to pay to talk to strangers, and both tiers just turn it into a messaging app with unlimited skips. If you see this app on someone's phone, they may be up to some monkey business.
2. Wink: The friendship app where everyone's tagged spicy
- Free, with a $19.99/month subscription to unlock likes and matches
- Available for iOS and Android
Wink's full name is "Wink: Friends & Dating App," so naturally I had to see if I could actually find any friends. The app uses swipe-based matching identical to dating apps. You see a photo, name, and age, then swipe left or right. Once you match, Wink encourages you to move the conversation to Snapchat by integrating directly with your account.
Image: Jessica Santero | WhistleOut
The male-female balance was skewed. I selected the option to keep things friends but after swiping through 70 profiles, I was dubious. Only 3 were women, and only one was tagged as friendly. Everyone else was tagged as spicy, which means more than friends (or at least friends with benefits). I specifically selected the filter for meeting friends only, which was impossible in practice.
Image: Jessica Santero | WhistleOut
Wink was constantly bombarding me with "someone likes you" messages but hiding them behind a premium paywall. You can't see who liked you or actually connect with people without paying. The subscription is $19.99/month just to talk to more people. I'd rather pay for a second gym membership and would probably have better chances at meeting like-minded women. It was a total dud.
3. Pure: The app that makes sure you leave no trace
- Free to download, with a $12.99/month subscription to chat
- Available for iOS and Android
Pure doesn't hide what it is. It's a hookup app. But what makes it a disguised app is how aggressively it's designed to leave zero evidence. The app doesn't allow screenshots (which, I'm honestly glad about), but that tells you everything about its purpose. You can't capture proof of conversations, profiles, or activity because Pure won't let you.
Image: Jessica Santero | WhistleOut
When you open Pure, you create a temporary request with a photo and what you're looking for. Once you match and chat, the conversation automatically deletes. Plus, there's even a random voice chat option that makes the whole experience more immediate and untraceable.
Image: Jessica Santero | WhistleOut
The one-hour request window means profiles aren't permanently searchable. You can't browse Pure looking for someone you know unless their request is active at that exact moment. The automatic deletion means there's no message history to review later. Pure even includes a panic button that immediately logs you out and clears the app if someone unexpected tries to look at your phone. But at $12.99/month, you're paying for a platform specifically engineered to hide your activity.
4. Yubo: Instant hookups, and I mean that literally
- Free, with optional paid upgrades for visibility
- Available for iOS and Android
Yubo is yet another live streaming app, but with suspicious intent. It's marketed as an app to make new friends, but in my experience, I only saw thirsty users crossing into inappropriate behavior.
I only saw guys' profiles when I tried Yubo. There wasn't a single girl. What's worse, is that I received inappropriate messages within my first two minutes on the app. One Reddit user on r/dating_advice had a similar experience.
Image: Jessica Santero | WhistleOut
If someone claims they're using Yubo to make friends, ask yourself why they need an app that looks and functions exactly like Tinder to do that. The swipe mechanics, proximity matching, and live video features all point to dating app infrastructure with a friendship veneer.
5. BFF: Make Friends & Meet Up: The perfect alibi for having a Bumble-like app on your phone
- Free, with a $50/month premium tier
- Available for iOS and Android
BFF: Make Friends & Meet Up (formerly known as Bumble BFF) gets recommended constantly because it piggybacks off the dating app's reputation. And while the concept sounds reasonable, it really doesn't work well for friendships. The swipe-style structure emphasizes your potential friends' physical appearance, and not really much else. But what's even more concerning is that you can link your Bumble BFF account to a full-blown Bumble (certified dating app) profile. Plus, you can recommend a so-called friend to other people! You use the same login and password for both, and all you have to do is switch between your accounts with a simple tap. That means someone can sneakily swipe on Bumble and hide all activity with a quick switch to Bumble BFF.
Image: Jessica Santero | WhistleOut
All I got from Bumble BFF were short-lived messages that fizzled out with zero actual plans to meet up or do something. You swipe right on people who seem interesting, match, and start chatting. Not to mention the free version is significantly limited compared to the premium subscription. It isn't cheap either, priced at $50/month.
Bumble kept notifying me that someone really compatible had liked my profile, but I couldn't see who without upgrading. The algorithm identifies people you'd probably connect with, but those profiles aren't accessible to free users. For an app focused on helping people make friends, this pricing model feels counterproductive.
Beware the vault app trick
Cooler weather brings you closer on the couch, so it's a good time to pay attention to what's happening on the screen next to you. Some of the most deceptive tools aren't dating apps at all. They're vault apps disguised as innocent utilities. Calculator Vault looks and functions like a normal calculator on the surface. But enter a specific PIN code, and it reveals a hidden space where photos, messages, and other apps can be stored away.
Why you can trust WhistleOut
.svg)
15+
years of mobile industry experience
900+
published wireless guides
35+
firsthand carrier reviews
We've been around since the birth of the iPhone. Along the way, we've learned how to spot the best deals for your wallet (and your sanity). We spend our days researching informative guides and writing insightful reviews on every kind of wireless plan, distinguishing what matters from what doesn't. We played around with these plans before recommending them, ensuring they're worth your hard-earned money.
Want to know more? Check out how we review every cell phone plan we rank.
Jessica Santero
Staff Writer
Find a better phone plan
Thousands of cell phone plans unpacked. All the facts. No surprises.
.png?w=280&h=280&usm=20&usmrad=0.8&fit=crop "Best Cell Phone Deals for September 2026: Get the New iPhone 17 for Free")
.jpg?w=280&h=280&usm=20&usmrad=0.8&fit=crop "Best Back-to-School Phone Deals 2026: Free iPhones, Tablets, Watches, and More")
