Dating App
Hello everyone,
I'm a solo developer and I'm creating a dating app centered around connecting people in the gooning community. I've already created the basics of the app and am moving towards refinement and launch. The purpose of this post is to inform everyone in this community about some of the features of the app, what it is and what it's not, as well as some reality checks. At the end of this post, I would appreciate it if you could take the short survey at the bottom so I can have an estimate on how many people are actually interested and would sign up after reading through what the app is.
Like many of you, I've been a long-time lurker of gooning and gooning-adjacent subreddits and discords. I've also been in relationships with people who have no idea what it is, or have a strong dislike for it due to insecurities. I've realized it is really tough to make a relationship like that work, and I'd come to wish there was a way to meet people who are like me. There are definitely already existing avenues of meeting people in this community like reddit and discord, but there are a lot of trust issues that come with this. How do you know this person is who they say they are? If people are like me, they would be very nervous to even reach out to someone when all they know is a chat history. That's why I ultimately wanted to create a platform for this purpose: meeting and seeing real, like-minded people without having to worry if they are who they say they are. I'll dive into the features now.
At a high level, the first iteration of this app works similarly to traditional dating apps like Tinder, Hinge, and Feeld.
For you:
- You will be able to upload photos of yourself
- fill out a form describing what you are looking for: Do you want it to be purely virtual? Do you want to meet in person? Do you have a partner and are looking to explore? What kinks are you interested in underneath the gooning umbrella? (Edging, Hypnosis, Gooning, etc.). These are some of the things you can fill out to help match you with like-minded people.
- fill out prompts describing a couple things about you which other people can see answer optional compatibility questions
Matching process:
- You will be matched with people with similar likes and then you can choose to like or pass based on profile. If you both like each other's profile, you will then be matched and can chat.
- You can like pictures and send comments to profiles
- You can send an opening message when you like someone's profile
- You can see who has already liked you
- Transparent matching (no hidden desirability or ranking score)
Miscellaneous features:
- If you are being harassed, there is a report profile button which you can click to send their profile to moderation (Me right now) to be reviewed.
- Chats are automatically moderated for harassing language (I tried to refine it so playful, flirty messaging is fine but I probably won't be able to get it in the sweet spot until people use the chat)
- Picture moderation (No nudity essentially)
- You can appeal a moderation decision
- Share-my-date safety check-in
- One-tap account deletion and data export
- City-only location
Verifiability:
- To really solve the issue of verifiability, on signup you'll go through a quick verification process with ID and selfie. This feature's purpose is to hopefully filter bots and make sure everyone is 18+. None of this data is held with me; the service is provided by Stripe. If you ever delete your account, all of that data will also be permanently deleted.
- When uploading profile photos, photos will be cross-referenced to verify every single photo is the same person
Reality checks:
- The first thing I want to talk about is the nature of the app. Since I will be pushing this to the App Store, I have to follow their guidelines. This means this app isn't a porn app, or an app to upload porn on. I have to be careful about what is allowed on the app as well as how the app is described and marketed so it doesn't get taken down. This will just have to be experimented with. It's possible because Feeld is on the App Store, and they are a kink-focused app more around poly relationships, I think.
- The second thing is monetization. I'm a solo developer so I have a lot more freedom on monetizing compared to apps like Tinder. I want to have a free tier which will have all the basics of a dating app. There will also be a second-tier monthly subscription which will get access to everything the app has to offer in addition to features released in future updates. There won't be any microtransactions, just the two tiers. However, there are real recurring costs associated with the app. The most expensive is verification which I have to pay every single time someone signs up. So I will essentially be in the hole a lot of money at the start where the entire user base is in the free tier, kind of scary as a broke college student lol.
- The third thing is the constraint of dating apps itself. I think it's safe to say that the quality of a dating app comes from how many users it has. If you have a low number of users, there is a smaller pool of people to connect with. Meaning a less likely chance there is a compatible person in your area. This community is pretty large across multiple subreddits and discords, so hopefully it won't be a problem. But again, I am also constrained by capital for signups. For that reason, I may have to rollout the app based on interest density gained from the survey I mention next.
So, it would be a real help if everyone interested could fill out this survey so I can get an idea about who is interested and who would use the app.
As for the timeline, I'm hoping I can launch it in 2-4 weeks. This could change based on interest levels. I have most of it done, there is just some behind the scenes work I need to get squared away.
Please let me know if you have any feedback, comments, or concerns with the app and I'll try to reply with an answer, thanks!