Hello everyone! I’m in the process of developing an app that will aim to facilitate organic interaction in public to hopefully foster platonic and or romantic relationships.
Before I dump a bunch of time/resources into this, I’d like some feedback! I want to ensure that the general public will be inclined to use such an app.
How it works: Input keyword (s) that define yourself along with the “rules” that govern your matches (age range, gender, etc,). Turn the app “on” and if you walk past anyone with the same/similar keywords, you’ll both be notified (you’ll also both know the reason why you connected). There is no swiping/liking involved. This only has a range of about 20 feet and will only work in public. Basically, this will just notify you of like minded individuals that you’re near. Kinda like a wingman, if you will.
For example: A man just moved to a new city and would like to meet platonic friends who have shared interests. He uses this app and puts in the keywords: “finance”, “nightlife”, and “golf.” Then, he sets his “rules” to only connect with people his age. He turns the app “on” and goes about his daily life. While walking in the grocery store, he walks past a man who has the same/similar keywords and they connect. From here, they can have a conversation based on whatever keyword(s) matched them together. If it was “finance”, then they can talk about the stock market or something.
Please note: - If two users connect, that means both had the app"on" and were interested in meeting people (thus, making it less/non intrusive).
- don’t focus on the logistics too much as this was a very broad explanation. I’m more so interested in opinions on “connecting” with someone in real life.
Thank you for any opinions! I really appreciate it and this will help me greatly.
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Hi and thank you for sending me over those resources! Those are excellent and I’ve just bookmarked them to watch/read later today.
Seems like you’re suggesting that many app developers take one step forward and two steps back? I agree and I think (in most cases) that’s due to a conflict of interest- monetization.
A lot of apps monetize “hope” and require users to continue using these apps. What if dating apps worked perfectly and users found their “partners” very quickly and then permanently deleted the apps? They wouldn’t be very profitable.
Now, what if these apps had algorithms work against its users and dragged on the entire process for many months/years? These apps would be a lot more profitable. Unfortunately, that’s exactly what they do.
The platform I suggest is free from this “hope-monetization” conflict of interest. There would be no algorithm working against users and the app itself would be incredibly simple. Only a few pages and no swiping involved so users are encouraged to go about their lives and not stay at home swiping a stupid app.
I understand I may have only answer a small portion of your feedback (and may have missed to bigger picture), but I will read/listen through the resources you attached and get back to this
Have you tried to look into why everything ‘social’ is being tagged as socially toxic, no matter the happy thoughts and good intentions behind them?
Because I should think that will yield an answer. Unless wait. Were you excluding search engine results because they harsh your wantrepreneurial buzz?
How Designers Destroyed the World - Mike Monteiro, at USI or how getting into technology to avoid human nature doesn’t work so well if you ever intend for those bastards to use your stuff.
It’s Not Just Usability nice because it cites Autistic Social Software
Hi and thank you for sending me over those resources! Those are excellent and I’ve just bookmarked them to watch/read later today.
Seems like you’re suggesting that many app developers take one step forward and two steps back? I agree and I think (in most cases) that’s due to a conflict of interest- monetization.
A lot of apps monetize “hope” and require users to continue using these apps. What if dating apps worked perfectly and users found their “partners” very quickly and then permanently deleted the apps? They wouldn’t be very profitable.
Now, what if these apps had algorithms work against its users and dragged on the entire process for many months/years? These apps would be a lot more profitable. Unfortunately, that’s exactly what they do.
The platform I suggest is free from this “hope-monetization” conflict of interest. There would be no algorithm working against users and the app itself would be incredibly simple. Only a few pages and no swiping involved so users are encouraged to go about their lives and not stay at home swiping a stupid app.
I understand I may have only answer a small portion of your feedback (and may have missed to bigger picture), but I will read/listen through the resources you attached and get back to this
This is essentially a marketplace of relationships, similar in a way to a dating site. Every marketplace has an easy side (demand) and a hard side (supply). For heterosexual dating in the West the easy side is usually men and the hard side is women.
In order to make this work, you need density of users in a specific location, which immediatly points to certain ways of marketing it. If, for example, you set up a booth at every entrance to the Central Station in New York and try to get everyone coming in to install the app, you might get enough density to create some connections (especially since people tend to spend some time there). Same for malls, airports (although harder because of border partol and the gate system).
But this will only work if you’re physically present to get a significant number of people to install the app who are going to remain in close proximity to one another for a while. A rave or a dancebar might work too.
It will be impossible to create this density by marketing online and expecting a high enough percentage of random people to have the app installed (unless you have 100’s of millions of VC dollars to invest in marketing - and likely even then).
So it’s not a bad idea, but executing it will require intense local focus. If you haven’t read The Cold Start Problem, give it a look. It discusses this in depth and has examples from Uber and Tinder on how they made it work.
You would have to have a massive marketshare for this to even happen. Do you know how rare it would be to have two people on a non mainstream platform?
You are correct my friend. This platform will initially be geofenced into a very small area until there is a very concentrated user base. From there, this “fence” will get bigger and bigger. The hope, of course, is for this to become mainstream.
I would try to do add on programming instead of an app.
This could be great feedback my friend! Would you mind elaborating? I’m not sure I fully understand.