Hinge

Are you sick of all the messaging and scheduling you do on your preferred dating app? Do you sometimes wish someone could just…do it for you?

Hinge thinks so, and currently the company is beta-testing a new app called Audrey, which automates the online dating process for you. If you find someone attractive on the app, Audrey will reach out, make an introduction, and if the feeling is mutual, will schedule a date for you to meet.

The app will cost about $99 per month, or that is the price point they are using for beta testing in New York, so it might change. According to Hinge’s website, the process for using Audrey goes as follows:

Some of October’s biggest dating news came courtesy of Hinge. The dating service announced a total overhaul, complete with a rebrand, an updated app, and a new advertising campaign. Two changes in particular made big news: Hinge was ditching the swipe and adding a $7 monthly fee.

The move was inspired by a Vanity Fair article called Tinder and the Dawn of the ‘Dating Apocalypse’. In the article, writer Nancy Jo Sales criticized the current state of the dating landscape, painting it as superficial and sex-crazed, and placing the blame on dating apps like Tinder and Hinge.

Justin McLeod, Hinge’s founder and CEO, was dismayed by the portrayal and resolved to take action. He announced that big changes were coming to Hinge in the fall, ones that realigned the company with its original, relationship-focused intentions. Then came the news about the swipes and the membership fee.

Hinge just announced the relaunch of its new self-dubbed “relationship app” as an alternative to dating apps, which have garnered a reputation over the years that the people using them aren’t all that interested in finding relationships. Hinge developers overhauled the app's look and feel as well as its functionality, and are now charging $7 per month for members to use it.

Hinge has been working on the new app for a year, though details weren’t disclosed. However, the company did launch a website revealing its escape from the “dating apocalypse” that is now online dating, named for the controversial New York Times article declaring the end of dating culture thanks to apps like Tinder.

Tinder has become an incredibly popular way to meet, but it has led to a lack of serious online daters looking for real relationships. The game-like swiping functionality of Tinder has created several copycat dating apps in the industry, each one claiming to produce better results and cut down on the fake profiles. So far however, nothing has made a significant dent in Tinder’s appeal or market share.

A year ago, Vanity Fair ran an article dramatically called Tinder and the Dawn of the ‘Dating Apocalypse’. It caused a major stir in the media - everyone was debating whether the swipe made love easier to find or wiped romance from the equation completely.

The article wasn’t just a catalyst for discussion amongst daters and writers. Justin McLeod, founder and CEO of the dating app Hinge, was also struck by what it had to say.

“It was the first among many realizations that Hinge had morphed into something other than what I originally set out to build (an app for real relationships),” McLeod said in an email to the Vanity Fair writer, Nancy Jo Sales. “Your honest depiction of the dating app landscape has contributed to a massive change we’re making at Hinge later this fall.”

Dating app Hinge started out with some stiff competition against Tinder. Since its debut in 2012, several other new dating apps have launched and attracted a growing user base as well as media attention, including female-centric dating app Bumble. Meanwhile, after steady growth since its launch, this year Hinge has seen its numbers declining.

Hinge’s marketing and product development have always focused on attracting more serious daters. The app is geared toward young professionals in their late twenties and thirties who are looking for long-term relationships, as opposed to the hook-up reputation that has followed Tinder since its inception. The app is billed as a “grown-up” alternative to the young users of Tinder, which at first seemed to serve the market well.

Hinge is focusing on helping their customers find long-term relationships these days in order to compete with apps like Tinder, an app known mostly for its hook-up reputation. One of the ways Hinge is catering to the more serious dating crowd is by studying their behavior online.

Now, Hinge has published a new relationship study, with data from 1,000 couples who met through Hinge within two months of joining the service. The company found several insights about what seemed to work for these couples and the experiences they shared.

One interesting revelation from the study is that men who are successful with dating apps (or at least with Hinge) were actually pickier than your average guy. Instead of endlessly swiping right in the hopes that a few women will respond in kind, these guys on Hinge decided to be a little more selective in choosing their matches.

On the other hand, women from the study who managed to find love on Hinge turned out to be less picky than your average female dater. The successfully coupled females on Hinge were 20% less picky on average. (Yes, they were swiping right more, not less – keeping more of an open mind.)

This change of approach seemed to make a winning combo for both genders. Also, in case you were wondering, Sunday turns out to be the best day of the week for online dating, so be sure to log in to your app. Response rates are 36% higher on Sunday evenings compared to any other day of the week. (Perhaps because the Tinder dates over the weekend didn’t quite work out as planned?)

So, if you’re using a dating app but want a more focused, successful experience (read: not just hooking up with people or messaging endlessly), here are some additional stats for you:

• Don’t just stop messaging, because you never know. Couples who met on Hinge messaged an average of 16 people before finding their matches.
• Messaging can work. On average, couples who met through Hinge messaged for 3 days and swapped 25 messages before giving their phone numbers to their partners. (However, don’t get carried away and message endlessly – try to get to the date sooner than later!)
• 80% of the couples listed their education and job, because they considered them important factors in making decisions about potential dates.
• Don’t expect instant gratification. Couples who met on Hinge went on 4-5 dates on average before meeting their significant others.

The bottom line? Keep an open mind, and keep your options open. For more on this dating app you can read our review of Hinge.