Matching

There’s another new dating app with a catchy hook debuting this month, this time involving your DNA. Pheramor, described by news website Wired as “23andMe meets Tinder meets monogamy” matches its users according to their genetic compatibility. The dating app launched this month in Houston, Texas.

For $19.99, Pheramor will mail you a kit so you can submit your saliva samples for testing. Then for an additional $10 per month, you can use the service and start receiving genetic-compatible matches.

The company was founded by two genetics experts, so the science figures prominently into the matching process. If chemistry is detected through pheromones, then why not assume romance and love will follow? Pheramor is trying to separate itself from the hook-up reputation of Tinder and appeal to more serious daters.

Image: Ditto

Fans of online dating cite access to a massive pool of potential matches as one of its best features. Detractors, on the other hand, call choice overload one of online dating’s greatest failures. If you fall into the latter camp, a new app is here to help ease the woes of overwhelm.

Ditto starts out like any other Tinder copycat. Users swipe through profiles until they spot one that catches their eye. They swipe right to indicate interest, and a right swipe in return makes a match.

That’s where things get interesting. On Ditto, matches are mutually exclusive until someone unmatches. Think of it as the dating app version of monogamy. A match can only be made with one person at a time, and swiping through other users is disabled until someone decides to end their current match.

Popular dating app Tinder is testing a new feature called Feed, aimed at providing users more insight to their matches, and to help spark conversations.

Feed consists of a real-time feed of social media posts from a user’s matches, specifically posts from Instagram and Spotify. The idea is that users can look at what their matches are virtually sharing moment by moment to get a better idea of what they are like – what they are listening to at any given time, where they are, and what they like doing.

The new feature will appear as a tab in the messages screen, according to website Tech Crunch. Users can respond directly to posts in their Feed without having to go back to the profile screen, making it easy to interact. Instead of having to be too descriptive in the profile, or thinking of something unique to say as an introduction, users can let their Instagram photos and playlists speak for themselves.

We all have that friend: the one who keeps dating the wrong person, over and over again, and is completely oblivious to where they’re going wrong (even though it couldn’t be clearer to you). As you hear about failed date after failed date, it takes every ounce of restraint you have to stop from grabbing their phone and swiping for them.

Now you can do exactly that, thanks to an app called Wingman, and you won’t risk pissing your pals off in the process.

Wingman puts the decision-making power in the hands of your most trusted (and meddlesome) mates. To get started, download the app, invite the single friend most in need of your Cupid skills, and create a profile for them. Once they approve of what you've written, it goes public and you can begin browsing matches.

The concept of a blind date is nothing new, but you haven’t seen it quite like this before.

Taffy is a new app that attacks the problem of superficiality in dating by blurring a potential match’s photos until you’ve gotten to know each other better. Users initially see the hazy images with a catchy headline superimposed on top (something like “Looking for a guy with a sense of adventure,” suggests the app, though calling that “catchy” seems like a stretch). Only after initiating communication are the clear images revealed.

“Taffy is a new way to meet people that puts personality on the same level as physical attraction by putting conversation first,” explains the website. “Photos are blurry until you start chatting. The more you chat the more you see!”

The swipe has become the symbol of a generation. To the right, it’s shorthand for like, lust, and if you’re lucky, love. To the left, it signifies dislike, disgust, and disappointment. It seems shocking that a simple gesture has come to mean so much, but it was no accident.

Tinder’s creators worked tirelessly to create a fun physical mechanism for the app, tapping UX designer Loren Brichter (who created the familiar pull-to-refresh feature now used by most apps) to design their own iconic gesture. The groundbreaking swiping interface turned dating into a game - and an addictive one at that.

Sean Rad, one of Tinder’s two co-founders, once told TIME, “Nobody joins Tinder because they’re looking for something. They join because they want to have fun. It doesn’t even matter if you match because swiping is so fun.”