A tech entrepreneur is launching a dating app he claims will be different: It will keep photos blurred until it knows you and a potential match have things in common.
S’More has been developed by Adam Cohen-Aslatei, the former Managing Director of gay dating app, Chappy. He says it will work differently to apps that give you dozens of different photos to swipe or scroll through.
Instead, this one will serve you five profiles a day and photos will be blurred (it will be free to use but if you pay for a premium membership you can access more profiles).
Related: 4 ways to reject someone on a dating app rather than ignoring them
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Users will be able to list interests with icons, and if you indicate that you share a certain number of similar interests, it will un-blur the photo.
It hopes to connect people who have things in common rather than just mutual physical attraction.
“The greatest challenge is resetting expectations for consumers,” Cohen-Aslatei told Tech Crunch. “We know that the swiping mechanism largely doesn’t work, but we’re providing another option which is if you truly want to get to know someone, suspend physical judgment before you decide if you like them.”
Cohen-Aslatei told Queerty the app will be for, “Everyone regardless of who you are or who you’re interested in. If your end goal is a healthy relationship then S’More is the app for you. It’s also the first mainstream dating app to be founded by someone from the LGBTQ community.”
Although there’s now a dating app in beta testing for queer women that doesn’t use photos – the text-based Lex – how confident is Cohen-Aslatei that gay and bi men will go for an app that doesn’t offer them photos as a starting point? We’ve all seen the guys who state they don’t want to be contacted by faceless profiles.
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“We are not saying physical appearance doesn’t matter: It matters a lot. But it should not be the only basis for making a dating decision.
“Most dating apps focus on image first because beauty and sex sells. The average person makes a visual-based decision in under 40 milliseconds.
“But the concept of judging a person based on the perfect selfie has not worked to get people into relationships. Millennials are the largest generation still single at this point in their lives. Our app suspends judgment and encourages you to get to know a person first.”
At the moment, S’More is only in private beta mode with a focus on Boston, Massachusetts. Cohen-Aslatei says the app has a waitlist of over 10k and will launch properly next month. From there, it will be rolled out to selected US cities and go national by mid-2020.
PLAYS WELL WITH OTHERS
Wow this is an absolutely wonderful brilliant creative idea for finding……
A friend
As for finding a relationship: epic fail! they can spew all the feel good nonsense they want if you’re not physically attracted to somebody there’s no way a relationship is going to work