Words Before Faces asks everyone the same question each day. You browse the answers — not the faces. Photos unlock once you've both decided the conversation is worth having.
Join the waitlistFree at launch · We'll email once, when it's your turn
What's something you changed your mind about in the last year?
That I hated cooking. Turns out I hated cooking alone in a badly lit kitchen after a ten-hour day.
I used to think ambition and contentment were opposites. I'm not sure they're even related.
Interface preview. Answers shown are illustrative.
Every mainstream dating app sorts people by appearance first, then asks you to find a personality underneath. Words Before Faces runs it the other way round.
It takes about three minutes and then it leaves you alone.
The same question goes to everyone in your city. Answer it in a sentence or a paragraph — whatever it's worth to you.
You see other people's answers with their age and rough distance. No photos, no job titles, no height. Reply to the ones worth replying to.
Once you've both sent a message, profiles open at the same moment for both of you. Nobody gets to look before deciding.
One question a day, and when you've answered it you're done. There's no infinite feed, because there's nothing left to scroll.
A thoughtful answer stands out on its own merit. There's no way to buy attention here, and no boost to pay for.
Nothing in the app is designed to make you anxious about response times or punish you for taking a day off.
We won't sell your attention back to you. The paid tier funds the app; your data isn't the product.
Hiding photos removes some risks and creates others. Here's how we handle both.
Everyone completes a live selfie check against their profile photos before those photos can unlock. Verified accounts carry a badge.
We show rough distance, never live location, and never your address. Distance is fuzzed so it can't be used to triangulate where you live.
Blocking takes effect immediately, removes the conversation from both sides, and the other person is never told.
Reports are reviewed by our team, not only by automation, and we aim to respond within 24 hours.
What we can't promise: verification confirms that a photo matches a live face. It is not a background check, and it is not a guarantee that anyone is honest about anything else. Meet in public, tell a friend where you're going, and make your own way home.
You do — just later. Photos unlock automatically once you and the other person have each sent a message. From that point Words Before Faces works like any other app: full profile, full photos, normal chat.
Nothing stops someone writing whatever they like, here or anywhere else. What the format does change is that a fabricated answer has to hold up in a conversation, which is harder than picking a flattering photo. Verification then confirms the person is who their photos show.
Yes, deliberately. You can hold several conversations at once, but you can't burn an hour scrolling, because there's nothing to scroll. Most people spend three or four minutes a day here.
Our team, with input from the waitlist. They're written to be answerable in a sentence but interesting at a paragraph, and never to require anything you'd be uncomfortable having a stranger read.
Free at launch, with no ads and no limits on how many people you can reply to. A paid tier will follow later for optional extras. Nothing that affects your safety will ever be behind a paywall.
We open city by city, because the format needs enough people answering the same question each day to work. The waitlist decides the order — the more sign-ups from a city, the sooner it opens.
We store your email and city. When your city opens you get one email with an invite code. We won't send you anything else, and you can unsubscribe from that single email.
One email when it's your turn. Nothing else.
Free at launch · Unsubscribe from the one email we send
Effective 18 August 2026 · Last updated 18 August 2026
Words Before Faces is operated by [LEGAL ENTITY NAME], registered at [REGISTERED ADDRESS]. We are the data controller. Contact: [email protected]. [DPO CONTACT, IF APPOINTED]
If you join the waitlist we store your email address and your city, so we can tell you when Words Before Faces opens where you live. That is all. We send one invite email and nothing else, and you can ask us to delete the record at any time.
Your gender preferences, and much of what you write in answers, can reveal sexual orientation, and sometimes beliefs or health information. Data protection law treats this as special category data and so do we.
The selfie verification check uses facial comparison, which is biometric data. We use it solely to confirm that you match your own photographs. The template is deleted once the check completes, and the selfie itself is deleted within [N] days. It is never shown to other users and never used to identify you elsewhere. [NAME YOUR VERIFICATION PROVIDER]
This website uses the Meta (Facebook) Pixel. If you arrived from an advertisement, the Pixel records that visit and any waitlist sign-up, and reports it to Meta so we can measure whether our advertising works. Meta may receive your IP address and details of your activity on this page, and may match it to a Meta account. Meta acts as an independent controller for that data — see Meta's own privacy policy. You can opt out via your browser settings or your Meta ad preferences.
We do not send Meta anything from inside the app — no profile data, no answers, no messages, no preferences.
Cloud hosting, our identity verification provider, our transactional email provider, and — for this website only — Meta as described above. Each acts under contract. We do not sell personal data, and we do not share it with data brokers.
Before photos unlock: your answer, your age, and a rough distance. Not your name, your photos, your exact location, or anything else. After you both message, your profile and photos become visible to that person only.
Account data is kept while your account is open. Delete your account and we remove your profile, photos, and answers within 30 days. Messages are removed from your side immediately; the other person's copy of a conversation is retained under our safety obligations. Records relating to a safety report are kept for [N] years.
Access, correction, deletion, restriction, objection, portability, and withdrawal of consent. Email [email protected]; we respond within 30 days. In the UK or EEA you may also complain to your national data protection authority.
Words Before Faces is strictly 18+. We verify date of birth at sign-up and remove any account we find to belong to a minor.
Material changes are notified by email at least 14 days in advance.
Effective 18 August 2026 · Last updated 18 August 2026
Joining the waitlist or using Words Before Faces forms an agreement between you and [LEGAL ENTITY NAME].
Words Before Faces is a platform that lets adults answer a daily question and contact each other. We introduce nothing and promise nothing. We do not guarantee matches, replies, dates, or any outcome, and we are not a matchmaking or introduction agency.
Words Before Faces is in development for release in 2027. Screens on our website are interface previews, and the answers shown in them are illustrative examples written by us — not real users. Features, timing, and pricing may change before launch, and joining the waitlist does not entitle you to access on any particular date.
You must be 18 or over. One account per person, under your own identity, with photographs that are genuinely of you. Accounts found to belong to minors are removed immediately and permanently.
Your answers, photos, and messages remain yours. You grant us only the licence needed to display them to the users the app is meant to show them to, and to store and back them up. We do not use your content for marketing without asking you first.
Soliciting money from other users results in a permanent ban on first offence, with no appeal.
We may suspend or permanently remove an account that breaches these terms or that we reasonably believe presents a risk to other users. Where safety is involved we act first and review afterwards. Paid subscribers removed for conduct are not refunded.
Words Before Faces is free at launch. If we introduce paid features, existing users get at least 30 days' notice, and no feature that affects your safety will ever be paid-only.
We verify that a face matches a set of photographs. We do not run background checks, criminal records checks, or identity-document checks, and you must not assume that we have. Whether to meet anyone, where, and what to tell them, is entirely your decision and your responsibility.
The service is provided "as is". To the fullest extent the law allows we exclude implied warranties and are not liable for indirect or consequential loss, or for the conduct of other users, whether on the app or in person. Where liability cannot be excluded it is limited to the greater of fees you paid us in the preceding 12 months or USD 100. Nothing here limits liability for death, personal injury caused by our negligence, or fraud.
Governed by the laws of [JURISDICTION], whose courts have exclusive jurisdiction, without removing mandatory consumer protections in your own country.
Last updated 18 August 2026
Verification confirms one thing: the person is the person in the photos. It is not a background check, not a criminal records check, and not an identity-document check. It says nothing about whether someone is honest about their job, their relationship status, or their intentions. We would rather state that plainly than let a badge do work it can't do.
The most common serious harm on any dating platform is financial, not physical. It usually follows the same shape: conversation moves off the app quickly, becomes intense faster than feels normal, and eventually reaches money — an emergency, an opportunity, a crypto platform, a favour.
Never send money, gifts, or crypto to someone you have not met in person, no matter how well you feel you know them. Anyone who asks is running a script. Report them — it takes one tap, and it protects the next person as much as you.
Report from any profile or conversation, or email [email protected]. If you are in immediate danger, contact the emergency services first. We are an app, not an emergency service.
[LOCAL SUPPORT LINE NAME AND NUMBER] — [LOCAL DOMESTIC ABUSE / SEXUAL ASSAULT HELPLINE]