These People Tried Timeleft in Manila. Here's How It Went.
There’s a new app on the block for people who dread another conversation with yet another potential match. Timeleft comes with the promise of organic interaction for those of us in the dating pool who want to form genuine connections.
In 2020, its founder Maxime Barbier built the app to provide a new twist to the way people meet online. The French entrepreneur was infatuated with the lost art of blind dates, thinking that there must be a way to date without the burden of romantic expectation. It mostly functions similarly to Bumble or Tinder, where you can look for someone to date or be friends with, albeit doing so blind-date style.
On its website, Timeleft’s premise is simple: Book your seat now and meet five strangers over dinner, whom you are matched with by a personality algorithm. Simply put, it’s an application that allows you to meet people in real life at Wednesday dinners in your city of choice.
The app just launched in the Philippines last August 2024. Since then, its advertisements have been all over Instagram. The app is still in its nascent stages in the Philippine market, but a handful of people have already gotten on the app and tried out the experience.
The app is relatively easy to navigate. When done signing up, it asks you to answer the basics: Name, Age, City, Zodiac Sign, and the like. To finish the sign-ups, users need to take a personality test that asks some pretty personal questions: Are your opinions usually guided by logic or emotions? Are you happy with your job? How often do you feel lonely?
To join a dinner, users need to shell out P499 for the dinner coordination fee. As of writing, the location choices are major cities all around the Metro, such as Taguig, Makati, Pasic, Quezon City, Alabang, Paranaque, and Muntinlupa, even extending its services to other hotspots in the Philippines, such as Cebu, Davao City, Iloilo City, and Bacolod City.
The interesting part? You’re given no information about who you’re having dinner with aside from their Age and Zodiac sign, and you only find out where exactly in the city you’ll have dinner on the day itself. And that’s where the fun begins.
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The Timeleft dinner experience, as told by Timelefters
When the day of the dinner arrives, it’s normal for participants’ nerves to feel all over the place. People’s expectations of the experience might differ, but the pressure of getting along with a new group of people remains the same for anyone joining a new social gathering. This can sometimes hinder people from trying the application out, especially because of the lack of control in the situation.
Understandably, the idea of having dinner with a group of strangers they have no background information about can be quite daunting, which is a common experience among Timelefters. Practically, users come into the physical interaction blind hoping for the best, with their only knowledge being the zodiac sign and occupation makeup of the group, leaving less room for judgment. Although nerve-wracking, a distinct feature that the app offers is being able to meet people in a group setting.
"We had a self-imposed rule that no one talks about work, which was enjoyable because people usually define themselves with work and the value it brings to them."
Patricia Morada, a Timelefter who attended a dinner at BGC, shared that she appreciated the dinner being with multiple people despite being an introvert. “It relieves you from the pressure, because it removes you from the situation of being with strangers and having pre-existing cliques already,” she expressed. Most of the time, the app usually groups you with people your age, but Pat ended up getting grouped with people in their late 30s given the app’s scheduling constraints, making her the bunso of the group.
Expectedly, there is an initial awkwardness to conquer when put in a group of strangers, but the conversation starters from the app helped the group break the ice, leading to a meaningful conversion that lasted them a few hours.
“At the beginning, there were random prompts from the app that allowed us to get to know one another. Then all of a sudden, it became like a group therapy session – all of us became strangers who opened up to one another.” For her, the dinner’s overall disposition was reflective — an open declaration of vulnerability, in some ways — as they talked about their different life experiences.
In these dinners with a mix of personalities, establishing the dynamic can be an ordeal in and of itself, but Pat shares that these things figure themselves out. “The moment I got there, everyone was there already, [so I was quite nervous]. After we all introduced ourselves, [there was an] informal moderator, who you could say is the extrovert of the group. We had a self-imposed rule that no one talks about work, which was enjoyable because people usually define themselves with work and the value it brings to them,” Pat recounted her experience.
At the same time her dinner was happening, her sister was also attending a dinner of her own with a group of 20-year-olds. According to Pat, her sister’s group talked more about current events, reactions to ongoing trends, and first job experiences.
This isn’t shocking, per se, as different age groups tend to have different priorities and lifestyles, depending on their seasons in life. Even if the app usually groups users with similar backgrounds based on their algorithm, there are some instances like Pat’s where you’re forced into an entirely new experience.
To some, it might be challenging to find things in common with these people, but for users like Pat, these hiccups happen for a reason, whether that be gaining new wisdom or developing deeper empathy for different kinds of people.
At the end of the dinner, the app automatically gives you the chance to stay in touch with your group by revealing their profiles. The result varies for everyone: groups will go out of their way to stay connected, especially for those who formed deeper connections, while other groups simply might just charge the dinner to experience.
A friendship application, with the potential for more
Timeleft removes the pressure of being judged based on their looks on a profile specially created to make one seem marketable, or at the very least, presentable.
Technically, Timeleft isn’t a dating application, but it’s sometimes mistaken for one because of its promotional materials that suggest the potential of an organic meetup through dinner. It’s an interesting proposition: meet someone over dinner the old-fashioned way, and if there’s a spark, then see where it might go.
Nowadays, the nostalgia for old-fashioned dating is at an all-time high, especially amid the fatigue and burnout surrounding dating apps. Before the age of dating apps, blind dates were a way for people to meet in real life without preconceived notions based on appearance or social media profiles.
Timeleft reintroduces this approach by taking away the curated profiles and leaving users with just the essential details, like zodiac signs and ages, which are usually only completely received until the day itself. This brings a fresh sense of spontaneity, especially for those disillusioned with the transactional nature of modern dating apps like Tinder and Bumble, where endless swiping often leads to superficial judgments. Timeleft, on the other hand, allows its participants the freedom of being judged for their overly prepared profiles.
Moving away from curated profiles taps into people’s growing desire for meaningful connections that aren’t solely based on physical appearance or quick judgments. Dating apps also tend to make users have “decision fatigue,” where making meaningful choices becomes more challenging due to the overwhelming number of options.
Timeleft offers a break to this cycle, allowing participants to interact in person without them having to swipe on one another and overthink whether a photo is flattering enough. With questions in the app’s personality test focusing on deeper, more personal topics, the algorithm seems to be encouraging vulnerability, potentially leading to more genuine connections. For many, the allure lies in meeting people without the pressure of romantic success or failure, allowing friendships or unexpected bonds to form naturally.
At the heart of dating apps is mutual attraction that is judged based on a set of pictures and captions. After all, you can’t talk to someone you didn’t swipe right on, which makes the ordeal more exhausting. Timeleft’s lack of information is a breath of fresh air for some because it removes the pressure to carefully plan a profile to make oneself seem marketable, or at the very least, presentable, to the rest of the dating market.
This is not to say that dating apps haven’t been successful for some people, but for many, dating profiles barely give you a chance to explain yourself properly. To Mico Cervantes, a Timelefter who has also explored being on dating apps, the idea of forming connections authentically feels like an exciting change to the ever grueling string of small talk filled with platitudes that iterate the dreaded “how’s your day?” message to keep the conversation going.
“[Being on dating apps] feels like you’re going through a catalog of people, and there are parts where you’re trying to figure out if you can sit through a date with them. What these applications don’t have is connection. In a social gathering, connection becomes a factor—this is what dating apps are missing, but what Timeleft tries to address. [It really] removes that intimidation of physical attraction,” he explained.
But with social setups like this, can there really be no expectations of something more? Again, these dinners are not solely designed for others to find romantic love, though the chances of meeting someone you have a romantic connection with is never zero.
But thinking about the dinner with heavy expectations might ruin the experience; in fact, some have suggested that the best way to enjoy these dinners is to come in with no expectations. Mico expressed, “I didn’t really know what to expect—I had to manage my expectations. That’s what I came in with, simplified and lowered my expectations. At the end of the night, we all just had a fun night as a group.”
Guess who's expanding their social circle? ????
— Timeleft (@apptimeleft) August 11, 2024
Timeleft is landing in:
???????? Oslo
???????? Makati
???????? Taguig
???????? Chiang Mai
???????? Pattaya
???????? Bali
???????? Jakarta
???????? Prague
Mark your calendars for August 14th – new cities, new connections, endless possibilities! pic.twitter.com/zCPiHOZt1h
However, even with these lowered expectations, there is nothing wrong with hoping for more from these interactions. Think about it like this: it's the same way that you would hope to meet someone special at a random social gathering, whether that be a birthday or a work event.
Where are all the people?
According to the Global State of Connections report, 57 percent of Filipinos have reported that they felt lonely — a jarring statistic, as it is well above the global average of 24 percent. With the rise in loneliness due to the prolonged lockdown of the COVID-19 pandemic, people have an intense longing for community. This is normal, as humans are social beings who need community the same way they need food and air for their overall health and well-being. Experts say the key to healing the social loneliness epidemic is fairly simple: having a local community that makes you feel less isolated.
In the Philippines where hiya is heavily embedded in our culture, meeting people outside our existing social circles can be tough. Regardless of age, people share the same sentiments: the more you age, the smaller your circle gets. This is made even more complex in a country like the Philippines where approaching people randomly may be considered taboo – or worse – creepy. Because of this, meeting people has become close to impossible for Filipinos, especially for those who don’t frequent social events.
Because of the need for community, many have resorted to social media in an attempt to form meaningful connections with other people, or at the very least, to just meet new people that you aren’t familiar with.
In other cases, some Filipinos have even just resorted to trying to meet people overseas, where people are arguably less shy and more straightforward and outgoing, making it easier to form friendships and relationships. Interestingly, despite these hurdles, people do not stop trying to take chances on people within their city.
That’s exactly the case with Timelefters who put in the effort to put themselves out there to widen their social networks and attend a dinner with a bunch of strangers. All this is done with the hope of forming different communities where relationships can be fostered. Although the app is fairly simple – essentially, it sets 5 people up for dinner — it is one among the many attempts to combat loneliness and isolation using the social media space, as people continuously crave the warmth of community.
Mico shared, “Before the pandemic, I could be a social butterfly. Coming from a pandemic that isolated me, I wanted a new network in a way. The people I’m used to seeing nowadays are people from church or people I connect with professionally, so it [can become difficult to expand my current circles].”
And when people put themselves out there, it’s not necessarily with any hidden motive or agenda. “In the group that we’re at, I don’t see anything romantic with any of them. To enjoy the experience with Timeleft, you have to see it as a social experiment — it’s like blind dating, but not dating, and of course, you hope for the best,” he added.
“[On dating apps], there’s that factor where it feels like you’re another piece of paper. The moment you meet people outside of those social circles, it becomes a bit of a task. There’s the Filipino mindset that because I look or speak a certain way, I [fall into a stereotype] which doesn’t give you much of a chance. There’s a lot of those hindrances. With Timeleft, I found it less intimidating — you’re just having dinner with people. It’s easier to manage expectations, so the hiya part doesn’t get in the way as much.”
In a world that continues to suffer from social isolation and digital fatigue, Timeleft offers a refreshing and unique way for people to meet other peers with the potential to build meaningful connections. Without the ever-present pressure of making the perfect profile and enduring the painful small talk, Timeleft reminds us that authentic human interaction—whether over a dinner table with strangers or through casual conversation—is still possible in today’s world.
As Filipinos continue seeking community and battling feelings of loneliness, social media applications like Timeleft provide a glimpse of a world that combines the benefits of the digital space with the nostalgic old-fashioned approaches, allowing real-world connections to once again take the center stage.
