Powered by WalkSafe - one of the leading personal safety apps in the UK - Bonkers is the first UK app to welcome people of all sexual orientations to search for both casual fun and long term dating whilst integrating personal safety technology into its user experience. In light of recent research, which shows that 63% of dating app users have felt uncomfortable on a date, there has never been a better time to utilise WalkSafe technology. 

Safety Features

With users able to control their own experience by choosing which side of the app they want to explore - “Bonk” for casual fun or “Bonkers” for a meaningful relationship - Bonkers includes a range of safety elements such as facial recognition, blocked screenshots, user ratings, embedded video calls, verification and kink and fantasy filters (on the Bonk side) alongside two of WalkSafe’s key safety features:

 WalkSafe - which allows you to type in your destination and share your route with selected friends. This includes an estimated time of arrival so your trusted circle know when you expect to arrive. It’s also the only app to share police crime data, so you can make a more informed choice about your selected route. 

HomeSafe - This allows you to share your route and estimated time of arrival with friends and loved ones, and will automatically alert your trusted circle if you fail to arrive at your destination on time.

Why now?

According to research commissioned by the BBC for its 2022 documentary, ‘Dating’s Dangerous Secrets,’ 37% of dating app users have reported someone for inappropriate behaviour, 63% have felt uncomfortable on a date initiated via a dating app and 33% have experienced either harassment or abuse on such dates, proving that additional safety measures in dating are now more vital than ever. 

Jay Dodds, co-founder of Bonkers stated: “As we all know, the dating app world is a saturated market. We wanted to change the dating game for good. We can, of course, continue to enhance our features in an effort to create a safe space virtually for our users, so that they can interact and match with confidence with safety at the forefront. However it's about what comes next. What happens when the user goes from virtual to in person. That’s where WalkSafe comes in. 

WalkSafe was an obvious choice for us. This was a very natural and clear collaboration. Two teams who hold the same vision and are very much aligned in future goals as both sets of technology evolve.

I hope that more than anything it creates a wave and encourages other apps to up their game. I think it's easy when companies scale and grow quickly they forget their key values of what they set out to achieve. We are the new kids on the block and we are very much here to keep the dating market on its toes.

To make change you must take action. We are ready to change the dating game with safety at the forefront.”

Emma Kay, Founder of WalkSafe stated: “I am really excited to be making the WalkSafe technology available to the dating market - particularly to an app as inclusive to the LGBTQIA+ community as Bonkers. At WalkSafe we live by one mantra: ‘to make the world a safer place.’ Powering Bonkers enables us to do exactly this by providing personal safety technology and features to as many people as we possibly can.”

Michael Neligan, CEO of WalkSafe stated: “The fact that the WalkSafe technology is now in a position to build collaborations such as this one with Bonkers is testament to the foundations of Emma’s initial vision for this business. WalkSafe will always engage with businesses that have a similar philosophy to our own and it is great to see that Bonkers are looking to make the dating world as safe as possible.

I am proud of our development team who have been able to quickly and efficiently build an integration with the Bonkers app to enable Bonkers users to benefit from our leading personal safety features.”