Love Checker: the Novelty Love Gadgets Explained

What is a love checker?

A love checker is the family name for novelty gadgets that turn two names, or a tap on a screen, into a love verdict. Some show a percentage, some a word, some a filling bar. Every one runs a Game: a fixed formula on letters or a random number. Online, the names blur together, so one site's love checker is another site's love meter or love finder.

The best known is the name-based love calculator. Ours counts the letters of TRUE and LOVE across two names and publishes the rule, so you can check any result with a pen.

Which novelty love gadgets are there?

Six gadgets turn up under the love checker name. Each gets one line here, with what it really does.

• Love tester: two names, or a hand on a sensor, in; a percentage or a word out. A Game.
• Love scanner: a scanning animation over a fingertip or a photo, then a score. It reads nothing.
• Love generator: makes up a love result, a pairing or a message. The output comes from a rule or a draw.
• Love finder: a name game that "finds" a match or a percentage. It finds letters, not people.
• Love meter or love scale: a dial or bar that fills to show a score. The dial is a drawing of a number.
• Who loves who more: gives each person their own number and compares them. It compares numbers, not feelings.

Where did love tester machines come from?

Love testers began as machines, long before websites. Nintendo sold an electronic Love Tester in 1969, designed by Gunpei Yokoi, and coin-operated love testers returned a verdict from a hand on a sensor. None of them measured anything. The web version is our love tester, which swaps the hand for two names and a fixed formula.

Is a love scanner real?

No. A love scanner shows a scanning animation, then a score, but a phone cannot read feelings through a fingertip or a face. The number comes from a formula or a random draw. The scan is there for the drama.

What is a love generator?

A love generator makes up a love result for you: a pairing, a percentage or a short love message, from names or at random. Whatever it produces comes from its own rule, not from the people it names.

What is a love finder?

A love finder is a name game that claims to find your match or your love percentage. It works only on the letters you type, so it can find patterns in spelling and nothing else.

How does a who loves who more calculator work?

It gives each person a number, from a formula on the names or from a random draw, and shows which number is bigger. Two numbers can be compared. How two people feel cannot be, at least not by a calculator.

How do you write "I love you" on a calculator?

Two keypad tricks do the job, and neither is a love test. The first is a number code: count the letters in each word, one for I, four for love and three for you, and type the three counts in order. The second is upside-down spelling, where some digits on a calculator display look like letters once you turn the calculator over. Both are wordplay with a keypad, which is why they live on this page with the other novelties.

Is a love checker the same as a love calculator?

Not quite. The love calculator is one kind of love checker. A love checker can be any gadget in the list above, and most never say how they reach a verdict. The love calculator on this site runs a published formula on the letters of two names, so any result can be checked by hand. To see what the others do behind the screen, read how love calculators work.