Dating sites and apps aren’t resting on their laurels. This we know. They’re releasing weird bells and whistles for the singles who don’t just want to passively look at a menu of pictures and profiles, pick some and communicate with the person on the other end.
Get ready, though, because here are two I don’t especially love.
First up comes courtesy of Tinder, which has been the matchmaking tool that I’ve been tinkering with most lately for better or worse.
Tinder already is an application in which it’s not a stretch to call it superficial. Occasionally men will comment on some part of the profile that I’ve written for myself as a way of showcasing who I am and what I’m about. Mostly, though, it’s a land for glimpsing images. Now, however, Tinder is allowing for even more opportunities to share photos and look at photos.
They’ve tacked on something called Moments. In an interview with Wired, the company CEO described it as a better means for people to “get to know their matches.”
Here’s how it works:
A user of the app can employ the camera on their phone to take a quick picture. Then they can write on it, caption it, and broadcast it to all of their matches. Then, in the manner that Snapchat does, the Moment photo won’t stick around forever. It will be gone in 24 hours, a quick, temporary image-driven message gone as quickly as it arrived.
Wired characterized the move as a way that Tinder is trying to be more like Snapchat or at least to move into Instagram territory. Probably true.
As a user, I have yet to find value in the Moments strategy. If one of my matches posts a Moments pic, I can, as I would with a profile in general, swipe left or right to show whether I like it. I may have accidentally “liked” one so far. The pictures tend to be of the mens’ pets, of them in traffic, of a beer in their hand or a selfie with them in an office chair. They’re fine. But, in my mind, I’m not getting to know anyone any better. And the pictures aren’t just directed at me; they’re for every lady that has matched with this gent. So it’s not exactly a personalized connector.
The other new feature to be released recently is from our friends at Match.com, and it’s considerably creepier.
Mashable reports that Match has teamed up with a facial recognition technology company. Together they’re offering a premium service whereby users can send in photos of their exes in order to figure out the specific look the person tends to go for. Then, using this data, the facial recognition company Three Day Rule will find people that fit that description.
I’ll say that again more simply. Match wants to help singles find dates that resemble—to a scarily accurate level—their past mates.
I don’t doubt that people will pony up the $5000 to do this for a six-month period. I’m just not one.
First of all, it seems to me that there’s a reason this person is an ex. For many single people I know, what they need to do going forward is to stop finding people like their former boyfriends and girlfriends, not pay money to track down their clones. Yes, sometimes the deficiency in the relationship is a personality, behavioral one, as opposed to looks-based one. But we’re getting into a weird area where we’re identifying the facial traits of what we find desirable and scrambling to find those who embody those, aren’t we?
The whole thing just strikes me as a misguided detective-y, wild goose chase. Plus, as I said, it’s creepy.
Stick to showing me photos and profiles of singles around me that might share my interests, Tinder and Match. Expand your services a bit more selectively.
-Dena