Design

The launch of new social app Curius offers “mindful swiping” – letting users choose what kind of relationship they are looking for up front, instead of the traditional yes or no swipe options most dating apps offer.

Curius is a dating and social connection app all in one, offering a range of relationship choices for users. The app offers six swiping options, so potential matches can let that user know what they are looking for in a relationship: serious romance, casual romance, serious commitment or marriage, quick fling, friendship, or starting a casual chat. Each choice represents a “unique social intention” as the company says – because people want more flexibility in how they connect with others over an app. The swipe choices surround each profile in the form of emojis – including toasting wine glasses, a rose, an engagement ring, and fire emojis. 

Users are also able to choose multiple intentions – for instance, they can choose friendship and casual romance with another user if they are up for either one.

Dating app WooPlus has just launched a major update of its app with a new look, logo and user experience in February, and a month later, it was the number one trending dating app on Google Play as registrations jumped 50 percent.

The self-described “dating app for curvy people” announced version 5.0, which includes new updates to profiles, a dating “assistant” to help guide users, and a new feature to curb ghosting behavior. This was good timing for the company as people went into lockdown worldwide in the wake of the pandemic, and many people isolating alone were turning to dating apps to feel connected.

The new profile update is described in the company’s press release as “unfolding,” because users can spend time with each profile swiping through their photos to get to a description – and therefore get a better sense of who they are. The company said that it allows users to show themselves more vividly and let people get to know them instead of judging quickly and moving on. 

UK-based dating app Butterfly, catering specifically to transgendered daters, has just launched in India, according to Quartz.

India is becoming a hot market for the dating app industry and is a big focus for Match Group and Bumble, who have launched high-profile campaigns to promote their dating apps in the country, including investing in celebrity partnerships and hiring regional managers. 

However, transgendered daters are finding it hard to find love on dating apps, especially in India, even as they take off.

New Design

A few weeks ago POF banned face filters and it appears soon after on Sept 17 the Plenty of Fish website, blog and dating apps received a facelift. The dating service has moved from an all light blue fish logo and theme to a layered multi color almost neon look. The light blue color is still there but the brightness has been turned up along with the addition of pink and dark blue. The interface itself has changed to reflect these colors with a few tweaks here and there to the layout. As far as we can tell no new features have been added and none removed.

You can also see the new look reflected in the Google Play and Apple App stores POF app install pages. One thing I notice on the App store is that POF is pushing a new statistic of 17 million conversations are exchanged everyday on the service. They still list the same stat of 4 million visitors everyday from 2017 (among others like 150 million registered users and 57 million new connections every week) so it looks like the dating service POF growth has stagnated. This is in part probably the result of Tinder becoming so popular and is also probably responsible in part of the updated design (which I am still getting use to).

Russia’s largest social media platform VKontakte is going head-to-head with Tinder and Badoo by launching its own dating app.

According to The Moscow Times, VKontakte’s Lovina is a video-centric dating app, offering a video chat option to people who like each other over the app and a “carousel” of short videos for a quick communication between random users who are browsing through the app. Executives behind Lovina say that providing video as the main way for users to connect is a better method than what traditional dating apps like Tinder offer, because video is much more revealing than photos or a written profile. Plus, there’s less chance of someone faking a video compared to photos.

Tinder Lite on Google Play

Tinder has unveiled its new streamlined app after announcing its debut earlier this year. Tinder Lite will be available as a separate app for Android phones and can be purchased through Google Play.

The new Lite app was designed specifically for users in countries and regions where Internet connectivity is slow and most people have lower-cost phones. According to Tinder CEO Elie Seidman, who spoke at the 2019 Rise Tech conference in Hong Kong in mid-July, the new app “would run faster, consume less battery and reduce network usage by about 20 percent,” as reported by The Jakarta Post.