Hinge's Newest Feature Is Designed To Make Your Next First Date Even Better
Dating apps are useful in so many ways: they offer the chance to strike up conversations with people you would've never crossed paths with otherwise, they're perfectly mindless entertainment when you're stuck in line at Starbucks, and there's no better rush of validation than getting a new match. It's sometimes easy to forget the actual intended purpose of dating apps — meeting someone amazing IRL. Hinge's "We Met" feature might change that.
The feature, which launches on iOS on Oct. 16 and on Android later this year, asks Hinge users to give feedback that the company will use in order to improve the potential matches they're shown in the future. This is the first time a dating app has invited user data and applied it to its algorithm, a rep for Hinge says in a press release.
"‘We Met’ will allow two matched members to privately confirm if they went on a first date and share how that date went," the rep states. "Hinge will use members’ feedback to suggest more compatible matches, with the goal of yielding even better first dates."
Hinge has found that users who exchange phone numbers with their matches meet in real life an average of four days later. So, four days after users swap digits, people who open the app will see "We Met," a simple survey with a maximum of two questions.
First, users can confirm if they actually met up with their match. If they did, they move to a second screen, where they can weigh in on whether their date is "the type of person [they'd] see again." (It's not an open-ended question; the options are "no" and "yes.") The feedback is private — their date will never see it.
According to a rep for Hinge, initial beta tests have shown highly positive results. Ninety percent of users said that their first date was great, and 72 percent wanted a second date.
"What we're trying to do is bring the best dating experience possible to users," Hinge CEO Justin McLeod tells Elite Daily. "With dating apps, the whole point is to go out on great dates, but most don't really know what happens after matching. We're trying to continually improve our service by making sure we're tracking who's going out on dates and if the dates are actually good."
While data shows that Hinge dates are overwhelmingly successful, McLeod says his goal for "We Met" is to create even more compatible matches.
"Over time, as we start getting data, we can figure out if there are consistent reasons that people don't want second dates," he says. "Is there something we can put into their profile that would help prevent that from happening?"
The future of dating looks brighter than ever.
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