Features

Consumers aren't the only ones excited about iOS 8. Apple launched several new features with the operating system that expand the capabilities of third-party apps, and app developers are keen to take advantage of them.

Most excitingly, iOS 8 lets devs use the Touch ID fingerprint sensor included in the iPhone 5s and the new iPhone 6 models. This means apps that would ordinarily use the Passcode feature can now include the fingerprint sensor instead, bypassing the need for a traditional password once a user's account has been verified.

Developers have jumped on the new opportunity and, left and right, are updating their apps. Here's a round-up of some of the apps that have adopted Touch ID:

• LastPass: The popular password management app now uses Touch ID to secure a user's password vault.
• Amazon: Where would any of us be without Amazon.com making our lives 101% easier? And now that the Amazon iPhone app includes Touch ID, it's even easier than that.
• Mint: Users can now log in to this money management app with Touch ID rather than their password.
• Day One: An award-winning journaling app. Users can lock their journals with Touch ID instead of a passcode.
• Evernote: Evernote is a modern workspace that helps you be your most productive self. Now it makes your life even easier by allowing premium users to use Touch ID to secure their accounts.
• YPlan: What are you up to tonight? YPlan is an event discovery app designed to help you answer that question by discovering and booking the best events in your area. Touch ID is now used for purchase authorization.
• eHarmony: You didn't think I'd forget to include a dating app, did you? Say goodbye to the days of user logins... if eHarmony is your dating service of choice, you can now use Touch ID instead.

Let's here it for iOS 8. Logging in to many of your favorite accounts is now as easy as resting your finger on that shiny new Touch ID sensor. Not only does it make sign-ins easier and provide another layer of security, it does so in a way that keeps with the overall Apple aesthetic and ethos. If you use any of these mobile services, take advantage of the Touch ID improvements and update your apps ASAP.

At the end of 2012, dating site Hinge had recently launched and was overshadowed by the popularity of dating app Tinder. Unsure of how to proceed with less than $32,000 in the bank and only a few thousand users according to Business Insider, Hinge decided to bet big on the mobile platform.

"We made some business assumptions that turned out to be wrong," Hinge CEO and founder Justin McLeod told the news website. "We were like, 'This thing is running out of money, and we need to do something drastic."

In what seems to be a spur-of-the-moment business decision, McLeod and a couple of developers holed up for a few weeks and launched a mobile version of Hinge on February 7th of 2013. But the launch wasn't as smooth as expected - Apple at first rejected the app, which caused many sleepless night for McLeod and his company. They had planned a huge launch party in Washington DC where the app first launched, and until the morning of the launch party, there was no app available.

The launch party turned out to be a success, and more people signed up right after it than had signed up for the beta in all of 2012. It seemed Hinge struck a chord with users where Tinder left them feeling insecure - especially women. Hinge does not just match users based on location like Tinder does (which means a lot of random profiles get into the mix) - you only get matched through your circle of Facebook friends of friends, so everyone you meet on Hinge has some kind of link to your circle. This security has been particularly attractive to female dating app consumers.

McLeod is not about to sit still. He is grabbing a good portion of the dating app market share, and expects to compete heavily with Tinder for its core user base. But he's taking things one step at a time.

Instead of launching his app nationally, he has launched city by city, building up a solid user base based on demand before he moves into a new market. Also, potential Hinge users must be invited by current Hinge users - adding a level of exclusivity and security to the app.

Hinge is now one of New York's hottest startups. Although Tinder is much larger (it makes more matches per day than Hinge has in its entire history), McLeod's company is starting to steal some Tinder users. It has expanded to 20 cities including Los Angeles, San Francisco and Washington, D.C. It uses a waitlist to assess demand in other cities, then launches when a few thousand people have signed up.

"There is no shortage of companies that have tried to build what we've built," McLeod says to Business Insider. "But we're using the organic, city-by-city method, which I think is the biggest thing ... We're a utility to help users meet great people in the flesh as effectively as possible ...We want to be a house party that has a really good host."

Online dating sites like OkCupid and Plenty of Fish have had a free model for a long time, which has managed to expand their membership databases and make them tough contenders with paid sites such as Match.com and eHarmony. But now that free dating apps like Tinder have entered the picture and taken the dating world by storm, the paid dating sites have seen not only a decline in membership, but also in revenues.

Is online dating on its way out?

According to a recent article in The Economist, paid online dating sites have reason to worry. In the article, The Economist points out Cupid, who runs subscription-based dating websites such as Cupid.com, UniformDating.com, and LoveBeginsAt.com, announced a $4.9 million loss in the first 6 months of 2014, up 20% from last year. The number of members has dropped, too. At the end of 2012, Cupid’s sites had 113,000 paying members, but by June 2014, they had just 48,000.

While this is a disturbing trend for online dating sites like Cupid – which haven’t really taken off like other paid sites Match.com and eHarmony – it could weed out many contenders in the online dating market over the next couple of years. However in contrast to Cupid's earnings, eHarmony recently reported incredible subscriber growth and better earnings than they have seen in years, due to focusing on long-term relationships and technology that they market as extremely valuable for finding the “right” match.

But what about popular free dating apps and websites like Tinder and old-timer OkCupid? They have attracted users because of their easy set-up and accessibility. They have made online dating less intimidating, (although a little more sketchy according to some users). Are they responsible for the decline in companies like Cupid? 

Not necessarily. Even free apps and websites aren’t so free anymore.

There has been a shift for the free dating apps and online sites to offer “freemium” services – that is, additional features to the basic service but for a price. In the current online dating market, revenue growth needs to happen for investors to remain interested, and that means charging for services once the user base is built. Tinder recently announced that it will launch a premium paid service in early November, while the basic features of the app will still be free. OkCupid started with a freemium model a while ago, charging users who want to filter profiles according to user preferences, or to be able to review and see reviews of other members.

Still others like eHarmony are adding more personalized matchmaking services at a very high price – thousands per year – for those who want a relationship but would like someone else to do the heavy lifting. eHarmony has not reported numbers to see the success of this particular service.

So what does the future look like for online dating? One thing is for sure: free models likely won’t last forever.

I've got good news for Apple fans. If using the Match app on your iPhone and iPod Touch just isn't enough for you, you can now get your fix on your iPad, too. Match has just announced a brand new, redesigned, fully maximized app for the the larger iDevice with iPad-optimized functionality.

Check out the new app in the App Store or at Match.com and get the scoop on its robust features below:

See Endless Photos With Stream

Stream is an iOS-exclusive feature that uses an innovative algorithm to serve up photos of singles. Stream finds the members closest to you and highlights photos in their profile in addition to the primary profile pic. Because the iPad has a larger screen, Stream can display multiple pictures at once. Ostensibly it's there to help you discover more of someone's personality, but let's be real: you're not looking for personality in the pics.

Make Quick Connections with Mixer

We live in an era of NOW, so Mixer aims to match you with potential partners at warp speed. Using geographic location, another exclusive algorithm, and your favorite swiping technology, Mixer makes it easier than ever to browse profiles.

Additional Features

Stream and Mixer are the big additions to the new Match App for iPad, but it's got plenty of other interesting ingredients to look forward to:

• Facebook sign-in: Signing into your Match.com account just got even easier. Now you can sign in using your Facebook credentials.
• Grid search: The impact of Pinterest is undeniable. Now you can see more singles at a time with Match's enhanced search view, which takes a cue from Pinterest's famous grid.
• Easier photo uploading: The snap-happy can now add photos from three different locations within the app's interface.
• In-app notifications: Stay even more connected in this hyper-connected world with in-app notifications.
• In-app purchasing: For the first time, you'll be able to purchase subscriptions and additional features while you're signed into your iPad app. How did it take Match so long to make it even easier to spend money on their products? Who knows, but you'll be glad you can when you're itching for an upgrade on-the-go.
• More ways to communicate: Your communication options are practically endless in the new Match iPad app. You can chat with potential dates throughout the entire app, from Stream, to your Daily Matches, and even directly from a member's photo. And there's no waiting – you can communicate from the second you start up the app.

There are a few common complaints every online dater has, and at the top of the list is "They looked nothing like their picture.” You could call it superficial, but let's be honest – who doesn’t appreciate truth in advertising?

There's always an embellishment aspect to dating, especially when dating means filling out a profile and answering personality tests, but there's a point when embellishment becomes flat-out lying. And that’s not cool, folks.

There’s never going to be a way to ensure that everything said on an online dating profile is fact, but a new feature from Zoosk will at least ensure that the photos associated with the profile are real. The new feature is called Photo Verification, and it uses a patent-pending process to compare members’ photos to videos they submit of themselves.

The verification service is currently available only on iOS, but an Android version is in the works. To use it, open the Zoosk app on your iPhone and select a profile photo that you want verified. You will be prompted to record and submit a video selfie that captures your face from multiple angles. Zoosk will then compare the video to the photo to ensure it’s an accurate representation of your real life appearance. If you pass the test, you will be certified with a badge on your profile. It’s basically the dating equivalent of Twitter’s verified profiles for celebrities, except you don’t have to have a famous face to use it.

Note: the video will remain private, so don’t worry about how much more awkward it is to take a video selfie than a photo selfie.

“One of the most important concerns of online daters is going out with someone who doesn’t really resemble their profile picture,” says Shayan Zadeh, co-founder and CEO of Zoosk. “By innovating a system for our members to validate the accuracy of existing profile photos, we believe we can create better first-date experiences that will lead to lasting relationships.”

By adding a new layer of transparency to online dating, Zoosk hopes to create a more authentic experience that will boost trust between daters and increase first date satisfaction. "Zoosk developed this feature in order to address its members' interest in having more transparency and trust in their potential dates," the company said in a statement. "By creating a Photo Verification process, Zoosk has become the first company in the online dating industry to directly address this concern."

To find out more about this dating service and the other features they offer you can read our review of Zoosk.

Oh boy. Just when you thought online dating couldn’t get any more stressful, you now have to worry about what feedback your date is sharing with the site that connected you.

Zoosk recently announced the launch of Date Feedback, a new feature that will allow members to provide commentary on their online dating experience. When Zoosk’s system recognizes that two users have exchanged a significant number of messages, Date Feedback will ask each to offer their opinions on how the conversation progressed and the likelihood of an off-line meetup. Zoosk hopes the new feature will provide valuable insight into the matchmaking process.

“At Zoosk, we are constantly improving our technology to help our members discover fulfilling relationships, and Date Feedback will be one of the first ways we’re able to add offline dates to the list of signals our algorithm can take into account for matchmaking,” said Shayan Zadeh, Co-Founder and CEO of Zoosk. “With the launch of Date Feedback and the important data points it adds, our platform will have the ability to become that much more adept at understanding how a member’s online dating experience transitions into an in-person meeting, and hopefully, a relationship.”

The goal is to offer each member a more personalized experience. By gathering data on what conditions are most likely to lead to in-person dates (and, afterwards, relationships), Zoosk is hoping to improve its Behavioral Matchmaking engine. The matching system will be better able to predict which introductions will lead to successful offline connections, making the website a more powerful tool than ever before.

It’s no surprise to see Zoosk taking a more technological approach to dating. The company has always espoused a tech-based methodology for matching, rather than a strategy based on self-reported questionnaires. The Behavioral Matchmaking engine works by tracking a user’s actions on the site – like where the user clicks and what messages s/he sends and responds to – in order to deliver better matches. Rather than using a one-size-fits all, static approach to dating (like a quiz or fixed profile), Zoosk constantly updates to accommodate your preferences and adapts its dating experience to your actions.

Now is a particularly good time for Zoosk to bring out the heavy artillery. Though it has yet to turn a profit, revenue continues to grow and the company filed documentation to become a public company in April. Zoosk plans to raise $100 million in its initial public offering later this year.

For more information on this dating site you can read our review of Zoosk.