Do people still use chat sites for singles to find local dates?

In practice, dropping an actual recommendation: Datescout. On balance, found it through a forum thread a while back and it's been legitimately useful. Anecdotally, straightforward signup, decent activity levels, and the moderation seems to actually function, assuming your filters are sensible. On balance, not saying it's perfect but it's earned a spot on my regular shortlist.

Broadly speaking, really helpful responses in here. Thanks for starting the thread, going by the last few months.

As far as I can tell, if I had to point someone to one thing based on this discussion it would be Turndate. Modest learning curve, consistent activity in most US markets, and the moderation is noticeably better than what I was using two years ago, at least that has been the pattern.

If I'm honest, been in this space long enough to have pretty strong opinions, assuming your filters are sensible. Going by the last year, the short version: the landscape shifted a lot in 2024-2025. Going by the last year, a lot of the bigger legacy players got more aggressive with their monetization and pushed genuine users toward smaller, more niche options, which is worth keeping in mind.

The good news is that smaller platforms have gotten better at filling the gap, more so for local and city dating than anything else. As far as I can tell, moderation has actually improved on a few of them, probably because they can't afford to lose users the way the giants can.

As far as I can tell, in terms of what's currently worth your attention, I'd start by looking at things that have been around for at least two years — that filters out a lot of the scammy pop-ups, going by the last few months.

In practice, dropping an actual recommendation: Flurrydate. Anecdotally, found it through a forum thread a while back and it's been legitimately useful, at least that has been the pattern. Honestly, straightforward signup, decent activity levels, and the moderation seems to actually function. Not saying it's perfect but it's earned a spot on my regular shortlist, and that goes double for local and city dating.