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That's a really clear analysis, thank you. I've often thought that dating apps should better explore the idea of making it mean something when someone expresse

That's a really clear analysis, thank you. I've often thought that dating apps should better explore the idea of making it mean something when someone expresses an interest, to show that the person taking that step is actually committed to the process of getting to know the person they have selected, and to prevent people wasting their time focusing on just the most superficially attractive people (who are probably inundated with options, or are catfishing anyway). The way I imagined it was that your patience would be something like a currency, and the longer you are prepared to wait before contacting someone without contacting anyone else, the higher priority your profile should be for the matching algorithm. I haven't thought through all the implications of this "market for attention", though, and I know that people could just use a different app if they were getting impatient. The other problem would be monetization, as you mention, but users could pay for the ability to send pictures in the app, and to be able to have the waiting days accumulate automatically, i.e. without having to log in each day (and watch an ad).

zachkatz 5y ago
The problem with dating apps is that it can very often be pretty unclear whether the person is actually worth getting to know or not (cute pictures =/= compatible personality). Which is why, IMO, the killer feature for dating apps would be one where everyone has to feature a video of themselves on their profile, like TikTok (there's one dating app that does exactly that, called Snack, but it never really took off and the network effect is crucial). You learn infinitely more about a person from a video than any amount of pictures can tell you. To a lesser degree, same with voice, which Hinge just added as an option.
- meristem 5y ago
  This assumes the best (or worst) of one's personality shows through in a video.
  - zachkatz 5y ago
    No, the assumption is that video shows a more accurate portrayal of one's personality [than just photos/text], because it's closer in resolution to real life. In other words, if you agree that meeting someone in real life is the most accurate portrayal of them, then video is a much better proxy for that than just photos and text.
    - dane-pgp 5y ago
      I'm not sure how much of someone's personality you can determine from a pre-recorded, scripted monologue to the camera. A video can show you how physically attractive some is, slightly better than a photo can (and you could hear if they have a beautiful or annoying voice, unless they're putting on a fake voice) but for personality you need to see how they react in different situations. Even if you can infer things about their personality from the video, that doesn't tell you anything about their likes and dislikes, which can be useful for text-based filtering. Users could mention their likes and dislikes in their videos, but you'd end up having to watch hours of irrelevant footage just to find one match, which isn't a great UX, and is expensive for the site too.
      - zachkatz 5y ago
        >I'm not sure how much of someone's personality you can determine from a pre-recorded, scripted monologue to the camera. You can determine a lot because what they decide to post/record says a LOT about them. Like, waaay more than just choosing whatever random photos of them.

zachkatz 5y ago

The problem with dating apps is that it can very often be pretty unclear whether the person is actually worth getting to know or not (cute pictures =/= compatible personality). Which is why, IMO, the killer feature for dating apps would be one where everyone has to feature a video of themselves on their profile, like TikTok (there's one dating app that does exactly that, called Snack, but it never really took off and the network effect is crucial). You learn infinitely more about a person from a video than any amount of pictures can tell you. To a lesser degree, same with voice, which Hinge just added as an option.

meristem 5y ago
This assumes the best (or worst) of one's personality shows through in a video.
- zachkatz 5y ago
  No, the assumption is that video shows a more accurate portrayal of one's personality [than just photos/text], because it's closer in resolution to real life. In other words, if you agree that meeting someone in real life is the most accurate portrayal of them, then video is a much better proxy for that than just photos and text.
  - dane-pgp 5y ago
    I'm not sure how much of someone's personality you can determine from a pre-recorded, scripted monologue to the camera. A video can show you how physically attractive some is, slightly better than a photo can (and you could hear if they have a beautiful or annoying voice, unless they're putting on a fake voice) but for personality you need to see how they react in different situations. Even if you can infer things about their personality from the video, that doesn't tell you anything about their likes and dislikes, which can be useful for text-based filtering. Users could mention their likes and dislikes in their videos, but you'd end up having to watch hours of irrelevant footage just to find one match, which isn't a great UX, and is expensive for the site too.
    - zachkatz 5y ago
      >I'm not sure how much of someone's personality you can determine from a pre-recorded, scripted monologue to the camera. You can determine a lot because what they decide to post/record says a LOT about them. Like, waaay more than just choosing whatever random photos of them.