New Dating Apps

New Dating Apps

Top nominees for this years’ Newcomer App of the Year.

Last week saw the very first UK Dating Awards where leaders and innovators in matchmaking got to celebrate their achievements. Amongst them were representatives from 10 mobile apps competing for the prestigious prize of ‘Newcomer App of the Year’

All these upcoming apps are trying to find ways of offering something new to the mobile dating experience, in other words something in addition to, or better than Tinder. As Tinder has got more popular, the matches it throws up have got more numerous and perhaps more random. Nearly all of the contender apps seek to constructively narrow the matching criteria for their users and thereby to produce better quality, more relevant matches. Every player is hoping that their idea will be the one that captures the public’s imagination and achieves the most important user feature of all: a large user base.

Here is a brief overview of all the nominees. You can follow the links in each for full product summaries:

      BeLinked – Date people within your industry/professional network.

BeLinked is the first dating service we are aware of that seeks to use the LinkedIn network to create a fresh pool of potential matches. It selects suitable matches from within your LinkedIn circles of contacts.

They say you should never mix work and play, but beyond this concern BeLinked offer some very strong advantages. It sure makes a lot of sense to pursue people in a similar profession with whom you may well have shared experiences and interests. What’s more, the LinkedIn network is a relatively secure one where users can be reasonably confident that their matches are genuine.

Over the years plenty of dating surveys have shown us that the workplace can be a hotbed of frustrated romantic longings. BeLinked looks like it has the potential to solve a real problem here and could be one to watch…

      Happn – Wake up alone and get a second chance to hook up.

Happn has a clear and simple Unique Selling Point that is based on new technology and increased participation rates in online dating. It introduces you to the people around you. Not like Tinder, the people within a few miles of you, but rather the people right next to you, in the same bar as you or walking past you on the street.

I tried it out at the Dating Awards and it worked a treat, successfully matching me with some of the other guests. I also discovered that it’s not as scary as you might think because Happn sends you matches sometime after you have passed a person. This means you don’t get embarrassed by instant matching, but instead you wake up and find a list of people you got close to the previous evening.

Happn was ‘highly commended’ (runner up) at the dating awards and is already getting very popular in London.

      TrueView – Find a great date idea – then find a date.

TrueView puts interests and event ideas first, pics afterwards. It has a great listings page which sits at the heart of its unique offer. The idea is to find something you want to do first and then find someone else who is interested in doing the same thing. Clearly set up to offer a less shallow experience than Tinder, TrueView encourages people to hook up in the pursuit of shared interests and not focus purely on picture swiping.

Trueview has a appeling design and great usability, coupled with a fresh matching concept and up to date listings. Worked for them at this year’s awards, as they took away the prize for Newcomer App of the Year.

      Pulsate – Where are all the single girls out tonight? – Finally an app that answers this question.

Pulsate claims to be the first ‘real time’ meet up app. It’s like Happn but it introduces you to the people you are right next to, there and then. It even points you in the direction of the bar where other Pulsate users are online.

This seems like the obvious next step from the Tinder phenomena, but there are reasons that apps have been reluctant to go this far. Not least, it could be embarrassing to get matched instantly while out and about. Nonetheless, Pulsate brings an immediacy to online dating that many may be tempted by - especially after a few drinks.

      Hitch – Where your freinds set you up.

Hitch is a tool that encourages your friends to introduce their friends to you. ‘Why do I need an app for this!?’ I hear you cry. Well here’s a simple question: Do you have single friends that you think might get along that you have not actively introduced to each other? Well there you go then – there is a place for this new app.

Like so many of the new dating offerings Hitch is about making mobile dating less anonymous and less like hard work. A match with a friend of a friend is much less random, and as such is likelier to result in a date with someone you get along with. In addition, you’re more likely to get a positive response to a date request - its rude to ignore a friend of a friend…

      WouldLikeToMeet – Higher standards of profile authentication

WouldLikeToMeet tackles one of the biggest problems in online dating head on with a simple but effective method for checking the authenticity of its new registrants and profile pictures. Every new user is asked to submit a short video stating their name and age, for the attention only of the WouldLikeToMeet staff. Very simply this eliminates the possibility of posting a random photo from the internet as your own pic and, at a stroke, cuts out a whole area of scammer activity. Scammers wishing to pose as hot women or men would have to find real people to make a video for them – not so easy.

Scammers are a big factor in user dissatisfaction and consumer awareness of this issue is growing all the time as people gain more and more experience of using different dating sites. The WouldLikeToMeet team believes this is an issue that dating sites should do better on and has found a great way of tackling it.

      Revealr – Choosing the sexiest voice

So after looks what turns you on or off most about another person? Well for many the sound of their voice is an important factor in the attractiveness of a potential match. So what’s the answer? Simple: when you create a profile, load a recording of your voice as well as a photo.

Revealr certainly presents a relatively pain free way of adding depth to profiles and creating more user interest and engagement. This is the sort of concept that could really capture people’s imagination.

      Loveflutter – Connect first, then swap photos

Kinda branding itself as mobile dating for quirky people, Loveflutter seeks to counteract the perceived shallowness of dating apps like Tinder, by refocusing on the messaging over the visual content. So much so, that it doesn’t release photos until users have had a conversation with each other.

Loveflutter has created some great press coverage around the idea of non-picture based matching. Their recent dating events featured hopefuls getting to know each other with paper bags over their heads (the ‘two bagger’ approach). Indeed their events won them the prize of most original dating event of the year.

      Willow – Branch out with question and answer based matching

“Branch out” is a fun tag line. Willow takes a similar approach to loveflutter and encourages people to chat to each other before they release pictures. The difference is the nature of the matching and conversations on Willow, which are led by profile questions. Upon registration you are prompted to answer some questions such as “What would you do if you won the lottery”. This is the information then used to match you together.

Willow was one of two apps that was highly commended at the Dating Awards.

      Queek’d – An app to recommend other apps/sites

Queek’d which stands for Quick and Easy Kinda, is an app that recommends other dating sites. Download it, enter your criteria and the app will recommend you which service will suit you best.