General News

Augmented reality: not just for Pokemon anymore.

AR has long been a holy grail of the tech world. Everyone wants to do it, but almost no one is doing it well. The explosive popularity of Pokemon Go proved commercially successful AR is finally within reach, and if there’s any industry other than gaming that seems perfect for this futuristic tech, it’s dating.

A Los Angeles company announced in June that it plans to launch the world’s first augmented reality dating app later this year. Called FlirtAR, the app will use a range of innovative solutions to identify nearby daters, measure compatibility, and make matches with just a point of your smartphone.

"FlirtAR will use facial recognition, geolocation, and augmented reality to show user dating profiles and begin conversations with potential dates in the real world and in real time," said founder Renan Godinho.

eHarmony is offering 50% off a 3 month membership this weekend here in the United States. This 3 day promotion runs from July 28^th to July 30^th, 2017. No coupon code is required and when you purchase a 3 month plan you should save over $40.

This is a great deal for one of their popular subscription plans. All you need to do is sign-up to eHarmony.com and become a free member. Once complete you can then go ahead and fill in the personality profile questionnaire which is the secret sauce to eHarmony's matching algorithm. The questionnaire has multiple choice questions and takes about 30 minutes to complete (it does not have to be completed all at once). Once finished eHarmony will then send you highly tailored matches to you that according to their extensive research, have the best chance of creating a long term relationship. To communicate with these matches via eHarmony messages you will first have to purchase a subscription.

For more details about this matchmaking service known for creating long-term relationships you can read our detailed eHarmony review.

First Dating App Screen Shots

Modern dating tends to follow a predictable path: swipe right, start chatting, hope you don’t get ghosted, meet in person, continue chatting, hope you don’t get ghosted…

A new app aims to shake up the status quo by skipping straight to the meeting - no swiping, no chatting, just good ol’ fashioned face-to-face contact. First invites singles with a sense of adventure to brave the ultimate, tech-assisted blind date.

The basic premise is simple. You post a date idea and a time. Other users can submit to join you. You pick a winner from the submissions. And then… you just show up for the date. There’s no communication ahead of time, no hours wasted trying to decipher each other’s emojis. It’s either your worst nightmare or exactly what you think online dating lacks.

Anyone who has waded into the murky waters of online dating knows the stress of trying to interpret a match’s messages. You analyze (make that over-analyze) every punctuation mark and emoticon, searching for secret meanings and signs of interest. Was that “Hey” a cut and paste sent to dozens of other daters, or was it a special “Hey” just for you?

Instant Relationship Advice (formerly called WittyThumbs) is here to make translating online dating messages a little easier. The website is the inaugural product from Hermes, a Y Combinator-backed startup that wants to help singles improve their online dating conversations via educational content and expert help.

Founders Liron Shapira and Lior Gotesman started the company on the premise that using a website or an app to find dates is no longer the hard part - instead, the greatest challenge singles face is figuring out what to say to catch someone’s attention.

It’s been a whirlwind week in the online dating world.

First, Badoo launched a feature to help singles hook up with their celebrity crushes… well, almost. A new search feature uses facial recognition technology to match users with dates who look like their favourite celebs. Among the most searched-for famous faces so far are Kim Kardashian West, Justin Bieber, and Robert Pattinson.

“People are looking for quick, fast, easy ways to start connections,” said Badoo's Miles Norris to the BBC, “and if the way someone looks is a good onboarding to that, then we want to make it easy for them.”

Dating apps are all about the swipes. In fact, the process can almost feel game-like, with users swiping left and right as quickly as possible, and it seems there’s an endless supply of potential matches.

So what happens when a new dating app forces you to slow down? It seems counter-intuitive in the current online dating market, but one company wants to try and take it slow.

Appetence is a new app that launched in May for iOS, and focuses on the art of conversation before all information about a match can be revealed.

When you download the app, you are asked a series of questions about preferences relating to music, food, TV, books, movies, and even pets. The app then shows you profiles that are compatible – sort of.