HabrJuly 19, 2026🇷🇺Translated from Russian

Mimolet Dating App Review Highlights Privacy Protections, AI Moderation, and UX Trade-Offs in Detailed Analysis

Mimolet presents itself as a standard dating application featuring a vertical feed of user profiles. However, a closer examination after registration reveals a broader set of functionalities that extend well beyond simple swiping, including detailed profiles, full-featured chats, public groups, integrated voice and video calls, AI tools, and a dedicated moderation system.

Registration, Profiles, and Vertical Feed

Registration in Mimolet requires more steps than many competing dating apps. In addition to name, city, photos, and dating goals, users must specify height and select between three and eight interests from a list of approximately ninety options covering games, music, films, fashion, and walks. Optional fields include favorite artists, attitudes toward smoking and alcohol, subculture affiliation, and willingness to meet in person, which helps set clear expectations from the start.

The vertical feed displays profiles in a scrolling format similar to short videos, with each card occupying most of the screen. Key information such as city, height, dating goals, and interests appears directly beneath the main photo, eliminating the need to open a separate profile view before deciding to engage.

Filters, Appearance-Based Search, and Communication Tools

Most filters, including those for city, height, interests, dating goals, and subculture, remain available without a subscription. A weight filter exists but stands out as potentially unnecessary and intrusive. An appearance-based search feature allows users to upload a reference photo and receive up to ten matching profiles with similarity percentages, though the app could better clarify what happens to the uploaded image after the search completes.

Chats function like a full messenger with replies, reactions, editing, deletion by either party, voice messages, video circles, stickers, archiving, and pinned conversations. Three AI tools assist with message suggestions, grammar correction, and voice-to-text transcription with punctuation. Built-in calls use WebRTC and temporary identifiers so users can speak without exchanging phone numbers.

Groups, Events, and Social Features

Public groups organized by cities, interests, and subcultures enable conversations to begin around shared topics rather than requiring an initial match. Users are automatically added to relevant groups during profile setup but can leave permanently. Events listing allows users to mark attendance and join associated chats, while a voice roulette connects random participants and a connections feature displays confirmed friends and partners with mutual consent required.

AI Characters, Moderation, and Data Handling

Several AI characters, clearly marked with an AI badge, provide app support, conversational practice, or tarot readings. Complaints and blocking remain free, with photos reviewed by AI models before publication. Images are processed on the server to determine true format, resized, and stripped of EXIF metadata containing device details, timestamps, and location data. The main application, API, and database reside in a Russian server environment, while media files are stored in a Russian S3-compatible cloud.

Privacy Questions and Monetization

Two notable privacy gaps remain: the privacy policy lacks specific retention periods for photos, backups, moderation materials, and AI conversation history, and blocked users have no dedicated appeals form with case numbers or status tracking. Three subscription tiers—Plus, Premium, and Ultra—increase reaction limits, boost visibility, and unlock additional AI capabilities while core features stay free. Monetization also includes blurred incoming likes that require payment to view and an optional ten-point photo rating system.

According to the development team, the service has around 200,000 registrations and roughly 15,000 daily active users, with retention rates of 44.96% on day three, 34.69% on day seven, and 19.11% on day thirty.

Related articles

SecuritylabPrivacy & Surveillance

Step-by-Step Guide to Removing Personal Data from Search Engines, Databases and Social Networks

The guide provides a practical seven-step checklist for individuals seeking to reduce their digital footprint by removing personal information from websites, search engines, and social platforms. It emphasizes starting with a 20-minute audit to compile exact URLs rather than vague requests, followed by direct contact with site owners under Russia's 152-FZ personal data law. Subsequent steps cover submissions to Yandex and Google for de-indexing, manual cleanup of old social media accounts, handling of phone numbers in caller ID services, and removal from directories and review sites. The process includes templates for formal requests, timelines for responses, and escalation paths to Roskomnadzor when operators fail to comply. Special attention is given to leaked databases, where technical removal is impossible, and to web archives such as Internet Archive that require specific legal justifications. The full cycle is estimated at two months, with quarterly maintenance recommended to sustain results.

HabrPrivacy & Surveillance

telEgo Combines MTProxy and WEB Proxy on Single Port 443 with TLS Fronting

telEgo, a Go-based Telegram MTProxy implementation using the gnet network engine, now supports all four WEB proxy transport modes alongside traditional MTProxy connections on the same public port 443. The solution allows FakeTLS with ee secrets, Obfuscated2 with dd secrets, and WEB carriers including https, https-lanes, websocket, and websocket-lanes without requiring separate ports or secret changes. telEgo performs handshake detection, forwards ordinary TLS traffic to Nginx on a private port using PROXY protocol v2, and routes authenticated WEB streams back to the internal MTProxy backend. The setup uses Docker Compose with separate containers for telEgo, Nginx, and certificate management via Certbot, keeping ports 8080, 8443, and 8444 internal. Existing MTProxy links continue to function while new WEB proxy links become available for Telegram Desktop. The configuration supports Prometheus metrics, connection limits, and automatic certificate renewal through systemd timers.

HabrPrivacy & Surveillance

From HAProxy to VLESS+Reality: Overcoming DPI Blocks for MTProto Telegram Proxies

A detailed case study describes the challenges of running an MTProto proxy for Telegram on Russian servers facing ISP-level DPI. Initial attempts using HAProxy TCP relays and SOCKS5 tunnels failed because modern DPI systems detect MTProto and fake-TLS signatures regardless of transparent forwarding. The author eventually succeeded by layering mtg with an Xray VLESS+Reality tunnel that performs genuine TLS 1.3 handshakes to legitimate domains. Key configuration pitfalls included the xtls-rprx-vision flow breaking non-TLS payloads, missing mux causing handshake timeouts on short-lived connections, and provider-specific network policies. Final architecture places mtg and an Xray client on the Russian entry server while the foreign exit server runs Xray in VLESS+Reality inbound mode. The guide supplies complete docker-compose examples, key generation commands, and a checklist of common misconfigurations to avoid.

HabrPrivacy & Surveillance

TLS MITM and Throttling to 10 Mbps: Two Distinct Network Degradation Patterns Observed in Russia

Russian users have reported sudden slowdowns and instability on international connections over the past several days. Analysis of Tunnel Cat logs revealed two separate issues that produce similar user symptoms but require different diagnostic approaches. The first pattern involves successful TCP and TLS handshakes followed by sharp drops in throughput, often from 80 Mbps to 8-12 Mbps, consistent with DPI-based throttling of international traffic. The second pattern shows TLS certificate substitution on Windows systems, indicating active man-in-the-middle interception. Tunnel Cat now detects invalid certificates and terminates such sessions, yet the underlying network phenomena persist. The observations highlight the need to examine both bandwidth dynamics and certificate chains when troubleshooting connectivity problems from Russia.