Butterfly

Butterfly is published by DM CUBED LTD and is rated 18+. Of the apps on this page it is the one that has thought hardest about privacy mechanics, and its store listing is unusually specific about them.

Its admission rule is stated openly, which we appreciate even though it is the thing we are building away from: the listing says people of any gender and sexuality are welcome to join, on the basis that every member is open to dating trans people.

Who is admitted

Everyone. Butterfly is a trans-focused app rather than a trans-only one, and it does not hide that. The premise is that the shared thing between members is openness to dating trans people, not being trans.

This is a coherent design. It is also the design that produces the complaint you hear most often about trans dating apps, which is that a large share of the people you meet are there because of what you are rather than who you are. Butterfly cannot solve that by rule, because its rule is the opposite.

Safety tools

This is where Butterfly is strongest on paper. Its listing describes verification based on liveness technology with thumbnail photos, restricted profiles intended to reduce abuse, photos that do not have to include your face, approximate rather than exact location, private messages deleted automatically after 30 days, and Face ID as an account lock.

Optional non-face photos and approximate location are meaningful for anyone who is stealth or simply does not want their face in a dating grid. Automatic message deletion is rare and worth noting: most apps keep your conversations indefinitely.

What costs money

Butterfly is free to join and sells a VIP subscription. On the US App Store on 21 August 2026, in-app purchases were listed as VIP Access at $9.99, $29.99, $71.99, $107.99 and $143.99.

The listing does not say which duration each price buys, so we will not guess. The spread suggests the usual pattern of longer commitments at a lower effective rate, but we have not verified that.

Platforms

iOS via the App Store. We could not find a Google Play listing for Butterfly. Its own Android page still says the app will reach the Play Store in mid-2021 and directs Android users to a mobile web version in the meantime.

We are flagging that rather than reading anything into it. A stale page is a stale page; it is not proof of anything about the app itself. But if you are on Android, check before you plan around it.

Our read

Butterfly is the app to look at first if privacy mechanics are your priority — the optional non-face photos, approximate location and expiring messages are real design decisions, not slogans. Its open admission policy is the trade-off, and whether that is acceptable is a question only you can answer.