When a match is made, it’s time to celebrate. To keep the user in high spirits, these moments are often more dramatic than the rejections. Bumble celebrates the matches with a boom and the picture of both parties, while Inner Circle just puts them under a tab in your Activity section. The fear of being rejected vanishes with each joyful match.
What happens after the initial flutter of a match? Every app treats taking things to the next level a bit differently.
While all of the reviewed apps have basic text exchanges to allow users go get to know each other on a 1:1 chat, a few took things to the next level. Inner Circle, Happn, and Tinder integrate third-party services like Spotify and Instagram. Sudy lets users send each other voice messages so you can feel that hotline bling.
Grindr’s parti-pris makes its way into its users’ conversations with a series of custom emoji… some more subtle than others. Along with flesh-colored aubergines, users can also share photos, videos, music, and location. Let’s meet RIGHT NOW.
With all of this sharing, educating users about safety is a must. Tinder does this with their Safety Tips section which provides users with useful information about online behavior, offline behavior, and health. Grindr also has a help center with a sexual health resource section.
Knowing the truth doesn’t always lead to trust.
The magic behind matching algorithms ranges from more to less explicit across different apps. Surprisingly, the most transparent mechanics aren’t the most efficient in matching people.
Grindr and Happn make clear that location is a key parameter to promote one person over another. It meets the purpose of finding someone nearby, but it is not proven that your neighbor is your soul mate.
OKCupid asks their users a set of questions to generate a matching percentage. After the user rejects a few profiles, new questions pop in. However, this exercise feels futile when the service allows users to start conversations without mutual consent.
Tinder and Bumble are more elusive about their prioritization of profiles. They cross reference more information to find out who their users are more likely to match with. Tinder uses a score, called Elo. It may be hidden to tall women single near you protect the user’s feelings. We wonder, to what extent is this hidden ranking responsible for the success of Tinder?
Filters are a very efficient way to find THE needle in a haystack.
To determine a range of candidates or to fine-tune a list of potential matches, dating apps (like other apps) use filters, which very efficient way limit results.
Some apps like Bumble, Tinder, and Sudy offer very few criteria like age range and gender. Appetence and Happn use the same few filters but add current location. InnerCircle allows users to be more picky by adding height, education level, and some other optional filters.
Grindr narrows the search even more by organizing the chat room into: My Type, Online Now, Photos Only, Age Range, Looking For, and Tribes. Advanced filters such as Height and Favorite Position are reserved for premium users.
The more filters, the better the user can refine their search. We hope that the heavy-filter-users will still catch surprising butterflies.
The user with the right to start a conversation is empowered.
Mutual consent prior to chatting is key to prevent the user feeling embarrassed, overwhelmed, harassed, or even depressed by these first points of contact.
In the one hand, apps like OKCupid, Sudy, Inner Circle, and Grindr allow every user to start a conversation, resulting in thousands of notifications within a few days of trial. While this might sound ego-flattering for some users, others might experience uneasy feelings.