Under 5,000 installs, charted in the top 100 of the US social Top Grossing chart: DateGlow and the row of dating apps behind it with swapped names

DateGlow is a "people nearby" dating app listed on Google Play in Sep 24, published by a US LLC that has only this one app. In six weeks, with under 5,000 installs, it squeezed into #85 on the US Google Play social Top Grossing chart. It didn't win on product. The same website, the same store copy, and the same "all bots, pay after a few messages" reviews appear across at least five or six dating apps under different company names. Understanding it shows how low the bar is to reach the US dating Top Grossing chart, and why this is a path we don't recommend.

The same person wrote the same negative review on two apps within two days

On Oct 15, a user named Nelly K left a one-star review on DateGlow's store page:

Seems like a lot of AI BOTS! Going to report you to the Federal Trade Commission for illegal activities, lose the paywalls or our group will go to the cyber crimes division of the police to have you shut down for good!

It roughly says: "Seems like it's all AI bots! I'm going to report you to the Federal Trade Commission and get the paywall removed, or our group will go to the police cybercrime unit and have you shut down." By Nov 6, the review had 10 "helpful" votes and was the most prominent review on DateGlow's page.

Two days later, on Oct 17, the same Nelly K posted the same thing under another app called Nayvi: Chat & Date. The opening was changed to "too many girls want you to buy premium plans," but the rest was word for word: report to the FTC, "lose the paywalls." Nayvi is published by a different company, Corevia Technologies LLC, listed in Sep 28. On the same page there is another four-word review: "bots pressuring purchase" (Google Play store page, 11-06).

A user running into two of them back to back suggests the two apps are probably the same kind of thing.

What it is

On the store page, DateGlow looks like an ordinary dating app: people nearby, browse profiles, tap like, match on mutual likes, start chatting. The tagline is "Find the connection that makes you glow ✨," rated Mature 17+, labeled "Users Interact, Shares Location, In-App Purchases."

The website dateglowapp.com is a single page. The hero shows two female profile cards: "Kelly, 27 · Online · Los Angeles" saying "I love traveling and have been to many countries"; and "Grace, 25" saying "I want to meet the man of my dreams and build a great life together." Below are support, terms, privacy, child safety and account deletion pages, with the footer "DateGlow by ThrillSphere LLC."

This is how money is collected: the terms mention both auto-renewing subscriptions and "virtual items," and the store lists single in-app purchases from $4.99 to $99.99. Reviews of similar apps make clear what coins are spent on. A Kizme user wrote, "Viewing private videos and photos costs a lot of coins, and the coin amounts you can buy are never whole numbers, the decimals always come out to 9" (Google Play, 9-11).

Why a few thousand users can put an app on the Top Grossing chart

First the numbers (public Google Play install counts and Top Grossing charts):

Two things are unusual.

First, the chart rank doesn't match the install count. Under 5,000 installs reaching the top 100 of the US social Top Grossing chart means few people pay, but each one pays a lot. This is the typical shape of the "fake chat + paywall" model: while free messages last, the "girl" on the other end is very warm; once they run out, you either buy a subscription or buy coins. A top-rated negative review on NightSpark (a similar app, covered below), marked helpful by 87 people, reads:

At first it seemed fine, but then I found every account messaging me was a bot. Once the free messages ran out, unless I bought a membership they harassed me and called me a "loser." — Austin Lawton, NightSpark, 10-14

Second, the US social Top Grossing chart is a low bar at this level. The top of the social category is dominated by giants like Tinder, Bumble and Hinge, but near the #100 spot, a few thousand high-spending US male users is enough.

Where users come from

Searching TikTok for "DateGlow" turns up no related videos, and nobody mentions it on X. The only pages you can find are auto-generated ones from data sites (11-06). It has no organic buzz, so its users must be bought (inference; no ad-library records of its campaigns turned up).

Several signs point to paid acquisition:

• It opens country by country. According to records from the third-party chart site AppInsider, it was first seen in the UK on 10-16, reached the top 100 of the UK social free chart on 10-19; 10-18 it started charting in Canada, and 10-19 in Australia; 10-27 it reached the top 100 of the US social Top Grossing chart. It tests one country at a time and adds more where it pays back.
• Installs rise in steps: 10-31 one day +517,11-03 one day +1,258, with a few days of 0 in between. That looks more like ad batches than word of mouth.
• The ratings look too fast. In 8 days there were 143 new ratings, roughly 6% of the new installs over the same stretch; a typical app runs 1–2%. The two newest 5-star reviews are telling: one says "simple, beautiful, easy to use," the other reads "from an app-testing perspective, the UI, navigation, profile setup and matching are worth evaluating", like a homework assignment from a test panel. The developer answers every review with the same template: "Dear User, Thank you for your lovely feedback! … Best regards, User Experience Team." That likely keeps the rating pinned at 4.6–4.8 and protects conversion from the ads (inferred).

Who it's competing with: a whole row of siblings

Pulling new dating apps listed on Google Play since May 2026 turns up a batch that look nearly identical: all in the social category, in-app purchases in the range $4.99–$99.99, published by newly registered US LLCs or individuals, mainly targeting the UK, US, Canada and Australia (public Google Play data, 11-06):

There are many matches: the websites of NightSpark, Nayvi and DateGlow all follow the "name + app.com" pattern with the same /privacy, /terms and /childsafetypolicy pages attached. Store descriptions end with the same layout: "📩 Support / 🔐 Privacy Policy / 📄 Terms of Use / 🔒 Child Safety." NightSpark's and Kizme's developer replies both read "Dear User … Best regards, User Experience Team." The negative reviews describe the same thing; someone on Kizme wrote, "If you look closely, the profiles are 100% fake, I mean 100%" (9-14). Whether they share one owner can't be confirmed, but they clearly come from the same template and the same playbook (inference).

Within this group, DateGlow is the small one: an order of magnitude smaller than NightSpark or Kizme, and its only standout is a higher Top Grossing rank relative to its installs. PeekMeet only rose 289 in 7 days, so it has likely stopped buying ads; 9, and in October new names like Nayvi, CatchLove, Nearish and Flirsy appeared. An app carrying negative reviews and reports can't last long, so it switches to a new company and a new name and keeps buying. That is why these apps keep showing up on the charts.

This playbook isn't new. Companies like Red Panda and Evermatch have run multi-brand "Dating and Chat - XXX" series since 2019, with single apps reaching millions to tens of millions of installs, mostly in emerging markets. What sets this batch apart is that it only targets English-speaking high-spending countries.

What can be taken from this

Two signals are worth taking, not the method itself:

• The US Google Play social Top Grossing chart near #100 has a low bar, a few thousand paying users. If you have a social or companion product with high revenue per user, this part of the chart is within reach.
• English markets can be tested one country at a time to check payback: the UK, Canada and Australia first, then the US. Test the cheaper markets first and enter the expensive ones later.

What you can't take is the core: using bots or operators to impersonate real people and lure male users into paying. In 2019 the US FTC sued Match Group, partly for using fake profiles to send messages that lured users into subscribing, and Google Play policy likewise bans deceptive behavior. The fact that this group changes company names so often shows what they are hiding from.

If it were you

Verdict: we don't recommend following it. It charted by pretending a real person is there and by using a pool of disposable company names. You either shouldn't do either, or if you do, you become just another mask in this row.

Who it suits: almost nobody should copy it. The people who can actually learn from it are small teams already building AI companions, voice dating or paid social. It shows how easy it is to get into the US social Top Grossing segment.

Who it doesn't suit: anyone who wants to build real-human "people nearby" dating (without real female users, cold start is much harder than you expect, and this row of apps exists because they couldn't solve it and faked it instead); anyone who won't buy ads and is counting on organic store traffic (none of these apps grew organically); and anyone who can't withstand removal, account bans or complaints.

How to do it: if you insist on this category, build an AI companion chat that says it's AI. The character is a character; state clearly that it's AI, and you can still charge coins per message or per photo, plus subscriptions. Don't let the store page or profile cards make people think they're real humans.

How to acquire users: buy ads at this row's pace, testing in the UK, Canada and Australia with small budgets first, then entering the US once it pays back. For ratings, prompt users to review inside the app when they're enjoying a conversation; don't buy reviews.

When to move: there is no time window to speak of. This row's window is the lifespan of each mask, measured in months.

What would show you've got it wrong: ① DateGlow and Nayvi are still listed and still charting six months from now, with no removal or forced information changes, which would mean the platform is tolerating it and the business is more stable than it looks, making its profits worth studying; ② an AI companion app that openly says it's AI uses the same "four English countries in sequence" playbook and reaches the top 100 of the US social Top Grossing chart with just a few thousand installs. That would show the chart can be reached without faking anything, and that is the version worth following.

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Data sources: Google Play store pages, public install counts, rating counts, and SOCIAL chart ranks in the US / UK / Australia / Canada (10-29 to 11-06); store reviews for DateGlow, Nayvi, NightSpark, and Kizme (September to 11-05); the dateglowapp.com homepage and terms (11-06); the AppInsider chart timeline; TikTok, X, and web search (11-06). Anything marked "inferred" is inference. Who is behind ThrillSphere LLC, whether it and the other apps share an operator, and actual revenue and paid acquisition spend are all unverified.