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Online dating can often feel like an endless series of lackluster dates. But what if a dating app could increase your odds of finding somebody you actually connect with?
That’s what dating app Hinge is trying to accomplish with “Most Compatible,” a new, free feature rolling out Wednesday that recommends one highly compatible match every day — a move that comes weeks after Match Group (MTCH) purchased a controlling stake in the app and two months after Facebook (FB) announced a dating feature of its own.
Here’s how it works: Hinge pairs you with another user it thinks you’ll likely connect with, based on algorithms that suss out your previous actions on the app and your interests. So when you log onto Hinge each day, the first match that shows up in the app’s Discover section will be your so-called “Most Compatible” match.
Users more likely to go out with ‘most compatible’ matches
Skeptical? You have every right to be, given the glut of dating apps and services promising meaningful connections. But Hinge CEO Justin McLeod claims the app is onto something here. And while Hinge doesn’t disclose how many relationships have resulted from the app’s test run of Most Compatible in Boston and Atlanta, he says that Hinge users are eight times more likely to go on dates with their Most Compatible matches. Translation: Hinge users are more likely to give their Most Compatible matches a shot.
“Most Compatible is really trying to figure out what type of person you’re most likely to like and also most likely to like you,” McLeod told Yahoo Finance.
Match purchase could help with international expansion
Hinge’s latest feature comes on the heels of Match Group’s purchase of a 51% controlling stake in the app in June. It also comes over a year after the company moved away from the Tinder-like method of having users simply swipe left or right on matches to serving up somewhat deeper profiles with more photos and information about each user. The redesigned Hinge became known as the “anti-Tinder.” That’s a reference to Match Group’s fastest-growing dating app, which has a reputation of enabling hookups, or more casual, short-term connections.
The cash infusion from Match Group’s purchase is key to helping Hinge grow beyond the U.S., UK, Canada, Australia and India. Indeed, McLeod expects Hinge to focus on further international expansion in 2019.
“They [Match Group] have the resources, the know-how, and they’ve done it with their other apps,” McLeod explained of the move. “It just made a lot of sense: if we wanted to bring a throughflow of people into the U.S. and the world, they were the best partner to do that.”