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Hinge has "swiped left" on a culture of dating apps that they say fail to foster meaningful connections. Instead, they're doubling down on efforts to help their users find genuine relationships.
The company, once a peer of Tinder, OkCupid, and Happn, has been pursuing a new look for the past nine months. Following user surveys and various pilots, the new service launched Tuesday, introducing a "story" interface Hinge says sparks five times more conversations than in the past.
Some Millennials – the target market of the proliferation of dating apps – say they aren't actually looking for relationships, but there may be many more who are. Hinge hopes to appeal to that demographic, and possibly even change the conversation about dating apps.
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The company's reincarnation was spurred by a 2015 Vanity Fair story that came down hard on dating apps, saying they encourage a culture that has destroyed romance, dating, and relationships. The article prompted Mr. McLeod to reflect that, "When I started Hinge as the first social-media-integrated dating service in 2011, this was certainly not the world I imagined."
Can they displace eHarmony as the "seeking meaningful relationship" app?
(Score: 2) by VLM on Monday October 17 2016, @06:30PM
so we're spinning a new way to take your money.
I'm surprised how uncreative it is. I can laugh because I'm an old married dude.
So why no arranged dating matchmaking for your friends app? Ok nice to meet you, my SiL is single so you are now matched and "have" to go out and report back. Not saying if I like my SiL or not. I suppose that could be a big problem.
Something like linked-in notifications "I approve my SiL as being a good vegetarian cook" or "I approve this former girlfriend of mine as liking athletic activities" or "I approve the claim that she likes romance novels" or whatever.
Gam-i-fi-ca-tion was cool like ten years ago and turned into a swear word since but maybe its on the comeback. An app based notch on bedpost is kinda crude but "answered 50 casual conversations" or something.
Oh here's one. I dated a chick when we were kids, like 20, who wouldn't let me touch her on a first date. I'm not saying I expected sex on the first date but I mean I didn't even get to kiss her goodnight and she insisted on paying her half. After she warmed up later she was OK she just started really slow. ANYWAY I'm just saying if you're willing to accept no sex on first date why not make the official first date over skype/hangouts/WTF video chat? What was that creepy video chat all anonymous naked men entertaining themselves but theoretically it was for random hookup chatting? Well someone should commercialize that for non anonymous dating. Or just hanging around. Anyway I'm just saying it would be pretty wild to have a first date with a girl where we're both in our apartments or just on phones together at random places. Not being into dating for a couple decades maybe this is a feature already present... it seems pretty logical.
My limited church experience is you've got a Catholic priest who's theoretically celibate trying to run a "singles youth group" that handles ages from low to infinity and good luck with that. That's about as likely to work as asking me to write a book for pregnant women about giving birth. But you gotta credit them for trying. Now a non-specifically Catholic dating group app for organization would be interesting. Apparently you need more than just a group on facebook for singles at your whatever. I suppose a service could coordinate local activities (like a matchmaker between groups and activities) so the bowling alley bids $X to host your groups singles night, vs some bar (for the over 21) vs some music festival thingy vs whatever. Hobby affinity groups take care of this naturally, the stereotypical hiking club, but unless you're in an area so large that there's a specifically "rock climbing singles" club then a singles club could need organizational application based help to organize certain activities.
Something like pokemon go that sniffs out singles via GPS might be entertaining, or creepy. I'd say that decades ago about 90% of females my age were in a relationship with the percentage increasing with hotness. Its hard to find single women! Maybe to reduce creepiness the way it would work is women GPS stalking the guys. Hmm.