alice morales bus That night a man on the dating app Fields was detained by ICE agents about a mile from his Brooklyn, New York, apartment.
Shortly after his divorce, comedian Morales, 35, was in the market for something completely normal. Then his eyes fell on Paul’s profile. “I swiped twice, and it took me a second to find what I was looking for,” she says. He was 32, straight, and, like Morales, looking for “casual entertainment.” That too was a mile away. Then she looked at his bio: “Hey, I’m Paul! ICE agent from out of town looking for fun :)”
Initially, Morales thought it was a bad joke, “but there was nothing else on the profile to indicate that it was, or what the joke would be,” she says. News alerts on their social media mentioned an active ICE operation in the area. “I feel like, is this guy actively kidnapping one of my neighbors right now?”
Of all the dating and hookup apps out there, Morales was feeling the least overwhelmed by Fields when she joined in the summer of 2025. She “liked the radical honesty” of people on stage. But this was the first time. “Obviously, I don’t expect everyone there to have the same progressive political beliefs as me, but The Field seems to be a place – because of its sex-positive nature, and what it embraces – where it’s shocking to see someone like that there.”
Although their experience is unique, it represents a sea change with some Field Power users feeling that the app, once a place primarily for non-traditional and kink-friendly daters, now caters to everyone.
Launched as a third in 2014, Feeld made a name for itself by embracing people who didn’t fit into the box of every other dating app. (Its original pitch: Tinder but for people who are in threesomes.) Looking for a play partner who’s two-spirit but not non-binary? Are you interested in finding a guy who is interested in bondage and ethical non-monogamy? The field was for devils.
He is changing. According to the company, subscriptions grew by 368 percent from 2021 to 2025, with new users increasing by nearly 200 percent over the same period. In data shared with WIRED, “Finding Community” has become the platform’s fastest-growing relationship model, growing 257 percent among new users from December 2025 to mid-January 2026.
“We’re able to do something really big and important for people,” says Field CEO Anna Kirova. “And that what we stand for can resonate with more people, not because we implemented it, but because we found a way to reflect what people want and then deliver it.”
But many longtime users describe The Field as a place that has turned from an exclusive forum into a “depressing” “Normity Hell,” filled with vanilla daters who are “using the app as the new Tinder.” This is on top of “scams,” “selling matches to your only fans” and bots. The biggest complaint, said one user on Reddit last year, is “the number of people on the app now who are not sexually open-minded.” Another added: Fields experienced “the biggest and fastest drop I’ve ever seen in a dating app.”
At the heart of app development, one question remains: Who is the platform really for these days?
On Tuesday, Field Will launch a new “self-discovery experience” called Reflections. Developed by University of Michigan Associate Professor April Williams, Reflections is a guided 30-minute survey – available free within the app or online for non-members – that measures your competence in three areas: desires, boundaries, and relationship priorities. A total of 165 prompts—the question “What would prevent a connection from progressing?” “Would you use large toys or objects on someone?” – Reflections tests users on things like their kink affinity, awareness of red flags, sex drive, ability to explore, and self-expression. (Users are given a percentage score in each area along with a summary of personalized results.)
