By Daily Mail (U.S.) | Created at 2024-09-27 12:00:47 | Updated at 2024-09-30 13:26:34
3 days ago
My parents met in the 1980s, locking eyes on a train before swapping (landline) phone numbers. Growing up, I always dreamed of a love life that would be equally romantic and serendipitous.
But, alas, at 30, I’m part of a millennial generation who has come of age on dating apps. Tinder launched when I was at university in 2012, with others quickly following. There’s Hinge (serious relationships), Bumble (women in control) Breeze (blind dates without messaging) Feeld (anything goes). You name them, I’ve tried them.
Dating apps have allowed me to date whenever I want, explore my bisexuality and have several fulfilling relationships. But, hundreds of dates later, I’m still single and what was once a fun novelty has become a slog.
People like me are feeling a sense of burnout, having been promised love but now stuck in a loop of swiping and ghosting. With zero accountability and a constant illusion of choice, dating has become about as romantic as ordering a Deliveroo.
Florence Scordoulis, a Pisces, says she is a prime candidate for dating by the stars
Indeed, last month, Bumble’s shares crashed by 30 per cent and Match Group, which owns several dating apps and sites, has seen a steady decline in paying users.
It seems singletons are looking for a new way to meet partners. Could ‘astrology dating’ – which promises to inject some mystical magic back into the dating scene – be the answer?
Enter Co-star, an app that has become something of a phenomenon. It describes itself as ‘the astrology app that deciphers the mystery of human relations through Nasa data and biting truth.’
Since launching in 2019 it’s clocked up 30million – mostly Gen Z and Millennial – users. It generates an astrological birth chart, combining this with real-time star data to create personalised daily horoscopes.
It’s important to note that Co-star, which is free to sign up to, is not a match-making app, rather a social network that can be utilised to help find more like-minded matches on actual dating apps by running compatibility tests with potential suitors.
This might sound bonkers, but 83 per cent of millennials believe in astrology and 81 per cent have or would consult it for relationship guidance, according to a 2024 Harris Poll.
It’s even more popular in the LGBTQ+ community: a third of users on queer women’s dating app HER said they wouldn’t date someone because of their star sign, and Hinge’s LGBTQ+ users are 86 per cent more likely to put their sign on their profile.
‘Astrology connects people with no separations based on gender and sexual orientation. That’s why so many queer people take an interest’, explains Moe Ari Brown, Hinge’s love and connection expert.
‘For anyone looking for love, it can offer an insightful, fun way to explore commonalities and strengths that, when utilised well, can support a lasting healthy relationship.’
Being millennial, queer and Pisces (making me, to quote Co-star, ‘fundamentally dreamy’), I’m a prime candidate for dating by the stars. And, although sceptical, I see the appeal. Four of my exes were Pisces: unrivalled emotional depth, always doomed. Then there was the ‘free-spirited’ French Sagittarius, who told me all about his commitment issues, on our first date (I should have listened).
To join Co-Star you need to provide the exact time, date and location of your birth
So, could astrology apps save me a lot of time – and finally help me find love?
To join Co-star you need the exact time, date and location of your birth. This is used to create your unique chart, a snapshot of the sky showing the precise location of all the planets and constellations (zodiac signs) at the moment you arrived in the world.
It’s our ‘sun’ or ‘star’ sign that dictates your core sense of self but it’s our ‘moon sign’ that reveals our more emotional side (mine’s Sagittarius, making me ‘independent’). Your ‘ascendant’, the zodiac on the eastern horizon at birth, influences how you present to the world: Gemini means I’m ‘chatty, eclectic and fun’.
Plus, there’s the position of eight planets: for example, Venus determines your approach to love (mine’s in Pisces, making me ‘sentimental’) and Mars is about taking action, including in the bedroom – mine is Aquarius which means I apparently assert myself in a way that’s ‘eccentric and unconventional.’ The chart also divides the sky into twelve ‘houses’, representing different areas of life – such as money and possessions and career and goals – again corresponding to zodiac signs.
While the birth chart is free, to put it to any use means spending money. I brave the ‘you in love’ test (£9.99) which analyses how you do relationships based on your chart. I’m told I ‘run at the first sign of trouble’, want my relationships to feel ‘all-consuming’ and can’t set boundaries. ‘Deep down you’re terrified of being close. You correct this by falling in love with a fantasy’. Wow. I sound like a walking red flag!
Co-star also has an AI programme called ‘the void’ where, for £2.99, you can ask up to five questions, with a specific section that prompts on love matters.
‘Who am I really looking for?’ I ask. ‘With your ascendant in Gemini, and Mercury and Mars in Aquarius, you’re attracted to individuals who match your quick-wittedness and enjoy intellectual conversations,’ comes the reply.
With everything to play for I re-download Hinge, using my newly gleaned astrological insight to help choose a match.
First on my list of star-driven dates is Jon*, 34, a cyber-security whizz from east London. His profile, with talk of travel, art and salsa dancing providing bait for this dreamy Piscean.
He’s late to the pub, so I’m a G&T down when he declares that he doesn’t drink. But his rather sexy leather jacket and disarming questions (‘describe your relationship with men’) charm me. When I enquire about his star sign, like most straight men, he has to google it (Capricorn).
To really test our compatibility I need to run Co-star’s ‘crush report’ function (£4.99 per report) where I feed his details into the app and get a verdict on our love potential. Despite saying ‘this is wild’ about ten times, Jon is up for the compatibility test, and, gamely texting his mum to ask his birth time, he jokes: ‘Do you want my mother’s maiden name and national insurance number too?
Our crush report lands and it’s like a Black Mirror episode. ‘Soulmates: every love song is about you’, it reads. We score full marks on physical attraction, emotional connection, communication styles and long-term potential. And ‘feel like home to each other’ because our moons are in Sagittarius. I start seeing him in a much more promising light. Could this be it?
However, it has the opposite effect on Jon. ‘Damn, this app has a lot to say’ he replies. Except, when our second date rolls around, he cancels on the day, offers a booty call instead, then says he’s not looking for anything serious. A few weeks later, he pops up on another app, with the tagline: ‘monogamy: low-key looking for a starter wife’ – proving that no matter how good someone looks in the stars, it doesn’t always translate.
Suspecting that a woman might be less star-spooked, I plough on with Cara*, a 35 year old community worker with a big grin, tattoos and a tongue piercing. She’s not a dating app match. Instead we get chatting in the smoking area of a queer club and hit it off – discover we’re both Co-star fans – swap numbers and agree to meet again. A few days later, over rooftop margaritas she confesses: ‘I was engaged to a Virgo once, too similar’, adding that she’s sworn off Scorpios (after being cheated on by two).
But, when we do the ‘crush report’, it transpires that her ex was also a Pisces: she makes faces, murmuring ‘spot-on’, as Co-star labels us a ‘romantic whirlwind’, warns it can be a ‘challenging match’.
Co-star was right. After two drinks it’s clear there’s no real spark and we part ways as friends.
Encouraged nonetheless, I try my luck with Alex*, 30, a south London tech founder. It turns out he’s bisexual, too – our chat about Saturn returns should have been a giveaway. He asks my star sign ten minutes in, and we download our crush report with gusto.
It likens us to ‘the old married couple’, we score highly on long-term potential due to my ascendant and his Venus being in Gemini. Our ‘minds excite each other’ with my Uranus in Capricorn and his Mercury in Taurus. Tick. But Co-star warns, he’s ‘not easily caught and doesn’t like labels’.
Afterwards, we go for a walk under the stars, and he remarks: ‘But why does what’s going on up there mean anything about us?’ No clue, Alex. And, maybe that’s the appeal, in a world where we have all the answers.
Co-star certainly added to the romance, but when I ask him out again, he says work is hectic, before ghosting me: so much for all that Gemini promise.
Did astrology app dating help me find love? Not yet. Indeed, every crush report has a disclaimer that it ‘won’t always feel like this’: ‘the only one with the power to decide is you’.
But, using Co-star did interrupt Groundhog Day-style dates with fun conversational prompts that accelerate the getting-to-know-you process. I enjoyed it as a test of how open-minded (or queer-friendly) someone is – and, yes, sometimes it’s scarily accurate!
Yet, I don’t think this is about astrology itself: rather, it’s a container for us to reflect on ourselves through what resonates, and to communicate that to others, with more social acceptability. And, if I’ll take anything from the stars: maybe being single right now is exactly where I’m destined to be.
*Names were changed.
Four more astrology apps to revamp your love life
The Pattern
The Pattern can tests your compatibility with up to six friends or lovers
Like Co-star, this AI app, with 15million users and celeb fans including Lena Dunham and Channing Tatum, creates a free birth chart.
It also tests your compatibility with up to six friends or lovers called ‘bonds’ (thepattern.com).
Sanctuary
This app offers a romantic compatibility calculator and costs from £49.99 for one year
Link with 140+ on-demand astrologers, tarot or crystal experts for personalised readings on your love life.
Plus there’s a romantic compatibility calculator (from £49.99 for one year, sanctuaryworld.co).
Stars Align
This dating app checks your compatibility scores out of ten before swiping
An astrology-fuelled dating app where you can read someone’s birth chart and check compatibility scores out of ten before swiping (starsalign.co).
Oromoon
Oromoon calls itself 'the first astrologically informed dating app of its kind'
View a handful of ‘stars’ (potentially compatible dates) per day, on this dating app which reveals sun, moon and rising signs (oromoon.com).
