General opinion/criticism regarding enhancing dating apps

[markedbysalvation]

Hi all quick intro - I’m a fairly experienced dev, built lots of products for years (no remarkable success here).

Anyway, so late last year i got an idea to automate matching on tinder, hinge and bumble in a sustainably efficient way. This was completely personal and i had no intentions to sell it really. It was also extremely hard so i’ve always been proud of it.

Lately, i’ve been considering embracing the full Indie lifestyle and just throwing stuff out there to find out what sticks. I have a couple other applications i take more seriously. But yesterday night, i saw this dude spam reddit with a similar product and noticed there was a fairly decent interest in it. I always knew it was a really exciting idea, my friends were super psyched about it but i felt it won’t scale for a million reasons (+ it was serving me and my buddies so i was fine with that) but now, seeing the market feedback around it. I think i mean why not? I have a complete MVP already so nothing really stopping me.

But now my question is - the dude spamming was full of BS and is probably most likely a scammer - but i’m wondering what will truly create value for people apart from auto matching/swiping.

In my experience auto matching doesn’t necessarily give you more dates. Granted, you save time but what could help?

My first instinct is to package it as a full dating platform with the option to link your other accounts (I think that makes it independent from the other services, since it’s most likely they come at it if it’s successful)

I was also thinking an AI assistant (like snap does) fine tuned on general dating advice?

Maybe this can also analyze performance on these platforms and provide feedback e.g (“bio”, pictures, etc)

Somebody said something about making it easier to initiate quiz like games to help “nerdy”/introverted people etc etc

I will like to get your your opinions/criticism on how to provide value.

EDIT: To provide value from both, existing platforms(e.g Tinder, Hinge, etc) and possibly a fresh platform

 

[saravr]

@markedbysalvation Definitely be proud of developing an auto swiping program, but I don't see the value of auto swiping. Even if the user receives matches, wouldn't that person still have to filter through the profiles to see if he/she is attracted to the match?

Why not take the swiping out altogether and build a ML model, have members feed it their preferences and have the app match, the app just opens the line of communication to the member and the matchee?

Your first instinct, the product being a matches aggregator from all major dating platforms would be interesting. I don't think I've seen anything like that before.

Your second thought, the AI general dating advice. I've seen something similar on Hinge or something... can't remember which app it was, where they had "human" dating coaches dole out advice. I think they had the advice in between the member swipes. Idk if they still have that.

I like the idea of giving members analytics on what other member/matches liked about their bio, pics, etc, like on weekly basis, like 88% of matches liked your 3rd pic. Or liked what the member said about a certain topic...or something like that. I could see that helping members curate their profiles better?

There is an app, I think Plenty of Fish (POF) and eHarmony, that does provide users a crap load of questions, like 1000+, to their members. I know POF compared the degree of compatibility based on how the match answered, but I don't think the app paired up matches solely based on compatibility score.

I have my own ideas on dating app, which I may turn them into an app down the line.

 

[ellie1142545]

@markedbysalvation Hey, I am a college student (and an active user of dating apps). Your idea on using AI to start conversations and automate chats makes a great deal of sense. It would come in handy. But I don't understand how auto-matching works? Please elaborate

 

[ellie1142545]

@markedbysalvation Hey, I am a college student (and an active user of dating apps). Your idea on using AI to start conversations and automate chats makes a great deal of sense. It would come in handy. But I don't understand how auto-matching works? Please elaborate