A new wave of dating apps offers users a deeper level of compatibility

Pew research shows that approximately 30% of Americans have used a dating app at some point in their lives, and Quartz says 40% of new couples have met in one. While dating apps are becoming a universal experience, many users are expressing their frustration.

They rely on a marketing funnel that is stuck between the stages of conversion and loyalty. Many people use them, but rarely succeed. You log in, and you’ll be immediately greeted with the first profile of the day You swipe and swipe through these, maybe checking for more details in their bio, maybe not. You’re mostly just swiping over who you find interesting. And what you find interesting is narrowly defined. When you meet those one-hundred people, you are less likely to swipe to the right of both. According to MarketWatch, the most popular dating app Tinder has a match rate of 0.6% for straight men.

But if you swipe enough, you get a match. Several, actually. However, only one or two out of ten matches lead to a date, according to MarketWatch. To get the initial conversation going, you both need energy to respond. To create answers that are enough to share but move the discussion forward. Showing genuine interest in another person without making it seem like an interrogation. Basically, you both need to be smart enough to share a phone number and agree on a meetup spot.

Peking says the spot can be particularly scary, but dating app Bumble has come up with something out of the ordinary. They offer “Bumblespot”, an array of officially approved locations that offer safe and icebreaking activities for meetups.

In this context, everything already mechanical about the dating process feels more programmatic. Each date has a binary result. The user creates a self-conscious internal monologue, “Oh, he said x, which indicates he’s not fit for y” or “Am I smiling with enough teeth?” Suddenly, you wonder how the most human of all activities became a series of one and zero.

When we think of dating app “gamification”, we think of swiping left and right like angry birds, but when it comes to real-life dating, the apps flatten out the user’s thinking process, turning it into a seam where the response to the right is a certain one. Trigger point value.

According to Mauro Usability Science, research has shown that apps like Angry Birds are popular because they are easy to learn but more challenging at the right pace to keep you employed.

And so after some date, users will probably end things without one participant speaking sincerely to the other. They don’t even get a chance to quarrel in the rain and then get a chance to compromise dramatically in an inappropriate public forum, as all the great stories tell us they should.

This is really the worst game, and users know it. A 2022 NEA survey found that consumer dissatisfaction with dating apps is higher than in any other consumer-oriented industry. People will literally wait with their internet service provider or sit in the middle seat on the longest, smelly southwest flight.

And Still.All the major dating apps have been increasing their user base year after year because despite the poor user experience, they still protect against two of the greatest diseases of the modern age: loneliness and self-doubt.

Jessica Alderson, co-founder and CEO of UK-based dating app So Syncd, believes that “technology has improved in many ways, and still – dating apps are still very basic.” So Syncd uses psychology-based personality tests to help users find similarities.

Consider how profiles are presented on the largest dating apps – many Tinder profiles don’t even have their BIOS matched. And if they do, they’re often shallow, surface-level information – whether the user prefers coffee or they’re Gemini.

We still have to adjust to the stars when we have to move towards science. Perhaps this is because the western image of perfect romance is based on chance, stumbling on each other in the street or at the bar. The idea that destiny has united you.

But Alderson believes there is still room for that cruelty, even when it comes to a highly-developed algorithm that brings you together.

“A dating app has ruthlessness in a different way. You’re almost creating more branches from your existing network. You’re more likely to meet people you wouldn’t meet otherwise. So there’s a beautiful serendipity in a variety of ways. It’s not just a matter of chance. “

The romance comes less than how you met and more than how you understood each other. For one, a personality-driven dating app offers a lot more to talk about matches. If two users are told that they share very specific psychological characteristics, the conversation is driven by itself.

Arranged marriage, still prevalent in many Oriental cultures, is based on this principle: the idea that love develops, without being found at first sight.

In Western culture, we always want the “best” whether it be our hairdresser, our doctor or our romantic partner. But the latter is highly prone to subjective bias – whether a doctor is wise or not. What a partner might want may be compatible with his or her social values, but not really suitable for your psychology.

Think about the “quarterback effect”, the idea that we see football quarterbacks as more attractive because of their ability and leadership position on the field. And yet, according to the New York Times in 2009, the divorce rate for NFL players is between 60 and 80%. Their perceived attractiveness does not make them good partners.

Therefore, a more advanced dating app can be a huge blessing, pulling out some subjectivity from dating and giving you what you need, not what you want.

And if that sounds too prescriptive, it’s not that any dating app can ever snatch a choice. Jessica Alderson highlights how her app’s goal allows users to search for what they find interesting, encouraging them to expand that opportunity. “In certain dating apps you can search for people with brown hair and blue eyes, this kind of thing. If you know you’re really attracted to outsiders, we want to help you find the person you’re attracted to. “

With our rapidly evolving technology, the sky is the limit. Personality is one thing. But visuals are also important. How we present ourselves in pictures and videos is often shallow and does not help others determine how we actually are. Again, an app that presents us as we are, not the way we want it to be, can revolutionize the market. Maybe an AI that makes accurate, representative, deep duplicates from our Instagram?

If dating apps, like many technologies, enhance humanity and help us overcome our shortcomings, it should follow that a well-designed app can catapult love and romance into its next evolutionary step. As people evolve, they become more ethical and productive over time. Why can’t their love life follow suit?

Bumble has revolutionized dating for women while giving them the ability to start a conversation. Now new apps like So Syncd can pave the way for the next big thing in dating

Co-founder and CEO of Theo Miller Hit Start, As well as the host of Tech Tmrw, a podcast where he interviews founders, inventors and thinkers about the future of technology. Episodes to discuss the future of dating So Syncd Co-founder and CEO, Jessica Alderson, will be released on July 1, 2022. Tech Tmrw 6 available on Apple and Spotify