There’s been a steady trend towards video-based dating apps in recent years, as more people seek authentic connections that text and photos usually fail to create. Through February — which is the final month of “cuffing season” Three startups are making dating apps that utilize video to assist users in finding love: Ditto, Candid, and IRLY.
The video provides an authentic experience for people who are bored of wasting their time scrolling for hours over profile pictures which, in reality, begin to look similar after time. Additionally, online dating is rid of ghosts, scammers, and catfishes which makes it more difficult to find the perfect partner.
In the last week, TechCrunch examined three brand new dating companies that use video to connect people ahead of their actual date.
Candid
Candid was launched on February 14th to provide users a brand new dating app that has videos to showcase your character. The 45-second videos are made within the app so that potential partners can verify that the video was just recorded and is genuine.
While other dating apps let users post videos onto their profiles via the camera roll of their phones or other social media, which means that the videos could be several years old, or even copied from another user. Hinge recently added specific video prompts that require users to create videos in the application.
Candid functions are similar to Hinge’s latest feature. Users can pick a variety of prompts, such as “Why I am so in love with my pet,” “A recent shower thought” “Perfect first date,”” and “Freestyle,” a prompt that allows users to discuss whatever they like.
You can also select a variety of categories to be displayed at the end of the video. This aids the algorithm to move possible matches that have similar interests higher up the stack, ensuring that users can be paired with similar-minded individuals. You can, for instance, pick from different types of values, interests, and goals such as cooking, nature, spirituality, or religion, for instance. The categories are represented in the form of hashtags, which move across the top of the display.
Users who are on Candid can vote for other profiles on the site, deciding those that are the most “creative,” “stunning,” “funny” or “candid” videos. The videos that have the most responses or votes will be accompanied by an image at the top of the page that reads “#1 Innovative” and the list goes on.
In the near future, Candid plans to launch features such as touch-up filters for video profiles, as well as the ability to video chat with possible partners.
Candid founder Sharon He created the app due to her own experience with the online dating craze, having to swipe through hundreds of online profiles before going on hundreds of awful first dates — which included 155 dates to be precise.
“I got this idea after trying Tinder, Hinge, Bumble, and other apps over the course of three years, on and off. I’ve been on more than 155 initial dates” According to him, TechCrunch. “Candid is a result of all the disappointments I’ve had to endure on my own.” She actually got to know her co-founder, Kyle Kelly, on Bumble who became close to He on how they wanted to transform the game of online dating.
At present, Candid is focused on advertising its app for colleges within the San Francisco Bay Area, including UC Berkley and the University of San Francisco. But the dating app was launched within the U.S. for anyone to download. It’s accessible on the App Store as well as the Google Play Store.
