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According to former Chappy Managing Director Adam Cohen-Aslatei, &something more& is one of the most common pieces of feedback that dating apps get from their users.
That where S&More comes in.
S&More was founded by Cohen-Aslatei to provide a dating app to users that goes beyond superficial looks.
Here how it works:
Rather than scrolling through a feed and swiping left and right, users are served five suggested profiles each day.
Unlike other dating apps, user profiles on S&More consist of icons, rather than pictures and text, which reveal characteristics about the profile owner.
For example, a user might put that they&re seeking romance, interested in hiking and got an education from this or that university, all in the form of little tile icons.
When a user interacts with those icons — S&More calls this a &wink& — more visual pieces of the profile start to unblur and unlock, revealing a profile photo and unlocking the person social media feeds, etc.
These interactions also unlock the ability to have a conversation, if they&re reciprocated, which creates a match.
As users continue to interact with others on the platform, S&More learns about what they&re looking for in a relationship and optimizes for those factors when suggesting other profiles.
&The greatest challenge is resetting expectations for consumers,& said Cohen-Aslatei.
&We know that the swiping mechanism largely doesn&t work, but we&re providing another option which is, if you truly want to get to know someone, suspend physical judgement before you decide if you like them.&
The company plans to generate revenue through a freemium model, charging users extra to access a Discover page on the app, allowing them to interact with and save more profiles than the allotted five per day.
Moreover, S&More asks all users to rank one another, not as prospective mates but as users of the platform.
The hope is that the public-facing user rating promotes a healthy, safe environment for all users to meet and connect without the abuse that so common on dating apps.
Ratings are also determined by a user activity on the platform and how complete their profile is.
The company also requires that users who register take a selfie for ID verification right at the point of signing up.
S&More is launching in beta to Boston and the D.C.
area with plans to launch in New York soon.
