A recent discussion with a friend inspired me to share my thoughts on the dating applications market. Many are available but none has yet found the secret recipe to instant love.

Dating apps are common among the 22-35 years old looking for the perfect date that may translate in something more (Digitaltrends, 2017). The most known options are of course Tinder, Happn and OkCupid. But many more exist such as Bumble, Tinder Select or even Innercircle all with features differentiating them from each other; either empowering women to make the first move, or allowing only high end profiles to find each other. As none of them can guarantee finding the perfect love, many dating applications options have developed. This has led to apps specializing in matching people based on a very specific preference or interest. An example of such a niche dating app is Sizzl, which connects people who like bacon. Many of such specific dating apps exist, check this out to see some examples.

A new dating app that I would like to talk about here, is Lime. This app has not launched yet but is expected to launch in the coming days (Digitaltrends, 2017). Their offering matches the digital health hype cycle (KPMG, 2015) where activity trackers are increasingly adopted by consumers hence their proposition may target a large proportion of the community.

Lime matches users based on their Apple’s health or Google’s fitness data. They believe that similar activity levels will mean similar interests. It works quite simply: when you start the app, you can see who is walking around in the neighborhood and look at their respective profiles (a little bit like Tinder). Simultaneously, you can keep track of your own activity level and hence might feel encouraged to walk towards one of the matching profiles. The added feature is that you can see the number of steps he or she is away. Additionally, to tracking your own step count and see how meeting with others may enhance this number, the app allows you to invite others to meet up based on the steps he or she is away and consequently increase your number of steps for the day. Whenever the other accepts your offer you can chat to decide on the exact location and directly meet to grab a coffee or else and of course see whether you are made for each other.

The app has not launched yet so we do not know whether it will be a success, however I have some thoughts about it.

I really think that the matching based on the activity of the user may be a nice feature as people who are highly active throughout the day may also need to find a significant other which can keep up with such a high activity level. Same holds for people who are less active. However, I have my concerns about the instant meeting up feature. In theory, it sounds cool but I am not sure whether in practice it would work.

Primarily, I think that users will not necessarily meet up instantly. It is possible to talk to each other without having to meet right away. This is undermining the concept of the application but will certainly happen as some people may feel that they need to change their clothes, or freshen up before meeting up. Hence, I do not believe that the steps feature will be so unique that people would want to switch from a dating app such as Tinder or Happn to this one proposed under the name Lime.

 

References

KPMG, 2015. How is Technology changing Healthcare? | KPMG. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.kpmgtechgrowth.co.uk/how-is-tech-changing-healthcare/. [Accessed 10 March 2017].

Digital Trends, 2017. The 8 Best Dating Apps for 2017 | Digital Trends. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/best-dating-apps/. [Accessed 10 March 2017].

Lime – Hyper local lifestyle dating App. 2017. Lime – Hyper local lifestyle dating App. [ONLINE] Available at: http://lime.dating/. [Accessed 10 March 2017].

Karissa Bell, 2017. Tinder is testing a secret version of the app for the rich, famous and hot. [ONLINE] Available at: http://mashable.com/2017/03/07/tinder-select-secret-app/?utm_cid=hp-r-13#IPJ696kFt5q9. [Accessed 10 March 2017].