I tried Facebook Dating for a week. Here's what it's like

Facebook made waves online when it launched its Dating feature in the Philippines earlier this month.

Even friends who were uninterested in dating apps, online dating, or dating in general found the very concept an interesting point of discussion — Facebook Dating? Really?

RELATED: 9 things you need to know about Facebook Dating

It didn't take long before everyone and their grandmother seemed to be aware of the new development. Facebook also made sure you wouldn't miss it, carefully placing a clickable heart icon on your app profile, where you can't miss it.

That said, I shouldn't have been surprised by the amount of people in it.

At its press conference, Facebook had said it needed some leeway time for users to sign up. It took a week after I signed up before the actual matching commenced.

And I knew it was finally functional when I was pinged in my notifications that a user had "liked me in Dating." 

First thought: wow, everyone is here.

I knew there wasn't a risk that any of my Facebook friends (including my family) would see my profile. Since I turned off the option of finding — and being found — by friends of friends, it was safe to assume I wouldn't meet anyone I already knew.

But it was soon clear that everyone else could find me: bus conductors, construction workers, instructors, photographers, even members of the Philippine National Police showed up in my suggested matches.

There were men who "worked at Krusty Krab" (and hilariously enough, also in "Krasty Krab").  

And of course that dude that "works at Edi sa puso mo" was also unavoidable.

Men from all walks of life were there, simply because Facebook in itself is very accessible.

And what did I have in common with all these people that Facebook Dating found it wise to put them in my suggested matches? It was our dating location, which I had pegged at Quezon City — at least at first.

After a days however, people whose dating location was pinned at Isabela, Davao, and Cabanatuan were being suggested to me, as well.

A random girl was also thrown in — despite me putting men in my preferences — which led me to conclude that the whole concept of preferences might not be working.

This for me is where they went wrong. It's great that the app is accessible and inclusive — part of the reason behind this development is the 200 million users who listed themselves as single in Facebook.

However, the matching and vetting process could still use some work, and a lot of fine-tuning.

While Facebook wanted to keep it as authentic as possible — by requiring users to display their real name and age as stated in their Facebook profiles — it clearly had no control over the finer details. I mean, many were using cartoon or anime characters as their profile pictures.

This begs the question: Why were they even there? Many were there out of curiosity. One of the users I spoke to said he already had an existing Tinder account before trying out Facebook Dating. He said he was simply curious to try this one out.

There are those who claim to want to meet new friends, and those who simply want to go on dates.

Interestingly, there are many who explicitly stated in their bio that they're in it for the long haul, who seemed to earnestly want to find "The One."

For some people at least, Facebook got the message across: It was a platform for meaningful relationships.

But much like the matching process, it seems Facebook Dating is sort of a hit or miss. It's not for me, personally, but I'm certain there are plenty out there who won't regret tapping that heart icon. — LA, GMA News