Some people couldn’t tell a lie to save their lives – and there’s a case to be made that maybe those people make the most low-key partners – while others have no problem keeping romantic relationships and side pieces on the sly, with nary a breadcrumb for their partners to pick up on.
If you have good reason to suspect that your better half has, well, another half that you’re not aware of, it can be tough figuring out the first steps to take to confirm those suspicions (especially while navigating the messy stew of emotions you’re dealing with). Like anything else, it all starts with a first step, and in a constantly connected world, investigating the apps installed on your partner’s phone is a solid first course of action.
Cheating Apps and Cheating Websites: The Breakdown
According to Regain, about 25 percent of men and 15 percent of women admit to infidelity in their relationships. If you suspect your partner is cheating, run-of-the-mill dating apps are of course a massive red flag, and even spicier hook-up apps or bespoke cheating apps and cheating websites (they exist), as well as stealth cheating apps, are a five-alarm, blood-red banner.
But here’s the thing: most cheaters will be a lot trickier than that, so you shouldn’t overlook less obvious examples. While anyone can cheat with Facebook Messenger or DMs on Insta and X, cheaters know the apps that’ll make them obvious and they’ll want a little plausible deniability in their corner, so many cheats will stick to less suspicious apps. The truth is, any messaging app can be used to manage an ongoing affair or a quick hookup, but clever cheaters will often choose messaging apps and platforms with built-in privacy features to cover their trail.
And that’s exactly why these are some of the most common cheating apps out there.
Snapchat
Snapchat falls into that sort of gray area between regular social media apps and “red flag” secure-communications tools that might just be cheating apps. In fact, the original purpose of Snapchat was to enable often-racy, short-lived communications that would then self-destruct. So at the end of the day, Snapchat cheating is just a question of using those default abilities the way they were intended. That puts it squarely on our list of potential eyebrow-raisers.
Viber
Viber is a messaging app with some cloak-and-dagger features like disappearing messages that delete themselves after just a few minutes. Cheaters can use Viber to send intimate images, videos, and messages without a record of their incriminating behavior. Viber’s Hidden Chats stay invisible until a PIN is entered that causes them to appear in the chat list, so at the very least you may be able to recover some evidence if your (soon-to-be-former) partner fesses up.
Per Sensor Tower, Viber usually floats around the top 30 iPhone apps, and has over 2 million Android and nearly 1 million iOS downloads, making it a top-level cheating app du jour.
Signal
Like Viber, Signal features automatically disappearing messages that are deleted after a set amount of time. Signal’s use of end-to-end encryption means that only the intended recipient is able to decrypt the message — and that means no one else, not even the app’s maker. Straight from the horse’s mouth, Signal’s marketing says, “Privacy isn’t an optional mode – it’s just the way that Signal works. Every message, every call, every time.”
And as cheating apps go, that’s a pretty alluring prospect, isn’t it?
Telegram
With more than 800 million active users, Telegram is one of the most downloaded apps on the planet, making it a less obvious but still widely popular tool used by cheaters. Just like Signal and Viber, the latest version of Telegram has an auto-destruct feature for messages as well as secret chats that are visible only after a PIN is entered.
Sensing a trend yet?
Your partner might be using the popular chat app WhatsApp to communicate with a secret lover. This app doesn’t feature secret conversations, per se, but a cheating partner does have the option to manually delete incriminating text conversations from their chat history so you’re less likely to find out about them. And at approximately 2 billion users, WhatsApp definitely has ubiquity in its corner.
The Usual Suspects…
It goes without saying that if your supposedly exclusive partner has dating apps installed on their phone, you’re in serious trouble. Each dating app has its own focus, from finding “the one” to finding a quick hookup, but none bode well when you’re already in a committed relationship.
Do yourself a favor and learn the names of the most popular dating apps. Some of the usual suspects still top the charts, making them common culprits for use as cheating apps. The most used dating apps and websites include:
- Tinder
- Bumble
- Match.com
- Badoo
- Telegraph Dating
- Coffee Meets Bagel
- Meetic
- OkCupid
- Hinge
- Plenty of Fish
- OurTime
If you see one of them installed on a partner’s phone, it’s time to start asking questions. It’s possible those are just leftovers from before your relationship, depending on how long you’ve been together (“Yeah? Let’s go through them and check your recent activity, shall we?”), but it’s best to get that convo started sooner rather than later.
…and the Spicy Ones
If regular dating apps are a red flag (but not always a done deal, as some – such as Bumble – do have features that match users with friends and business partners), some spicier dating apps might as well be called cheating apps. If you find these on your partner’s phone, “incriminating” doesn’t even begin to cover it.
AdultFriendFinder, for instance, is a freemium app with a focus on hookups and casual sex, while RedHotPie is another hookup site used by 2 million people. No one’s using these to find a friend, period. Likewise, keep an eye out for legit cheating apps – apps that focus squarely on affairs and infidelity. Some of the most popular straight-up cheating apps include Victoria Milan, Heated Affairs, Seeking Arrangement, and Ashely Madison.
If your partner has these installed? Run.
Undercover Cheating Apps
So what about cheating secret messaging apps that look like games or other stuff that might commonly be installed on a phone? Bad news: they exist. Good news: you’re about to know exactly what to look out for.
These aren’t too common, but it certainly doesn’t hurt to know their names. If your partner is using any of these, you might have a particularly stealthy (and tech-savvy) cheater on your hands:
- Calculator Pro+, a private messaging app hidden behind a simple calculator app
- Vaulty Stocks, the same deal but with the appearance of a stock-trading app, and the added feature of a secret photo album locker
Apps like Hago, Plato, Yubo, and RecRoom all have game-like appearances – or actually do contain games – but also offer built-in chat features that help cheaters DM each other undercover
More Tell-Tale Signs
Of course, cheating apps, cheating websites, regular old apps, and those incognito tools aren’t the only red flags – infidelity is way older than iPhones, and plenty of signs are still analog. According to Psychology Today’s Robert Weiss, Ph.D., and couples therapists at Prevention, signs such as these should at the very least give you pause:
- Newfound periods of being unreachable, or suddenly altered schedules
- Sudden and significant changes in your shared sex life
- Friends appearing uncomfortable around you (a hint that they might be in the know)
- Newfound attention paid to your partner’s appearance
- More possessive changes to phone habits
- Mysterious new expenses
- Defensiveness or inconsistent stories when confronted
- A recent lack of emotional intimacy or affection
Spokeo’s Got Your Back Like a Bestie
Everyone needs a bestie to get them through those “it’s complicated” relationship situations. Consider Spokeo, our online search tool that sources over 12 billion records to reveal the sorts of truths that leave no stone unturned, your cheating website buster. Whether it’s a potentially cheating partner or a brand-new business contact, run a Spokeo search by entering their name on our website, and our engine will trawl those tough-to-find social media accounts and undercover dating app profiles, too.
Let’s hope your suspicions are wrong. But if the partner in question has a criminal record (additional fees may apply for a criminal search) or even a checkered past they’ve been keeping in the closet, you deserve to know. And like a good bestie, we’re here to help.
Sources
Regain – How Many People Cheat? Infidelity Facts and Statistics in the US
Sensor Tower – Top Charts
Viber – Home
Signal – Home
WhatsApp – Home
Snapchat – Home
Sensor Tower – Telegram
Psychology Today – 10 Signs Your Spouse Is Cheating
Prevention – 9 Warnings Signs Your Partner Is Cheating on You, According to Therapists
Yahoo! Finance – 20 Dating Sites with the Most Users in 2024
Dating Scout – Best Cheating Apps 2024 in the U.S.
Bonobology – 15 Cheating Secret Messaging Apps That Look Like Games
AirDroid – AirDroid Parental Monitoring