Yet another app with Tinder sauce? Everyone will make their own decision, but Hinge’s promise is to deliver an app that’s made to be quickly removed.
An ambitious proposal that is committed to the quality of the recommended profiles. You take the time to complete a comprehensive profile, just like other users do. Clearly, if you’re looking for a one-night stand, go your way, although it’s actually a bit different as evidenced by users interviewed by Tech&Co.
Founded ten years ago, the app has just arrived in France and has been available since the beginning of March. Here it does not swipe like on Tinder. To mark a sign of interest for a profile and start the conversation, the user can “like” a response to a question answered by the person, or “like” a photo, for example. So the more you “like” certain types of people, the more Hinge learns about your preferences.
Leo discovers the app. This 24-year-old Parisian didn’t know Hinge, he’s more of a Tinder user, but he saw some ads on Instagram. He has just created his profile for the occasion and gives the first impressions of him.
Creating a profile on Hinge takes more time than on other apps, it requires completing a whole page. A minimum of six photos are mandatory, the user can indicate their height, their job, their level of studies, their religion, their city of origin, their astrological sign, their desire or not to have children, or their tobacco or cannabis use. Thanks to all this information provided, the algorithm will be able to propose the profiles with the best chances of being liked.
The originality of the application lies in the original functions that it offers to its users who can answer questions or write guided teasers: my typical Sunday, my most irrational fear, my hidden talents, useless information that I adore, the secret to seducing myself, etc. The user also has the option to post a voice note and a short video. Leo put on a voice note and used his scathing humor: “Hinge appeals to our creativity, we can respond in a funny way.”
He took the time to create his profile and answer all the questions,
Once the account is finished, the first profiles are displayed.
“An Extra Chance”
No need to click on a profile to get more information about the person, everything is displayed. So, by definition, the user spends more time on a profile. For example, your partner’s height is something you care about, and it’s information that automatically appears in a Hinge profile, which Tinder doesn’t.
During the first few hours he spends on the app, Leo receives a few likes and likes on profiles and photos in return. Except that the number of likes is limited to 8 per day without a Premium account. Quality before quantity therefore.
She doesn’t expect apps to find true love, but apps “give an opportunity to open up to other perspectives and discover people from other backgrounds, and Hinge provides an additional opportunity for this with an original approach,” she explains.
The profiles that have been proposed to you are displayed according to a specific algorithm used by Hinge. The algorithm is inspired by the Gale-Shapley algorithm, which is interested in peers and associations. Thus, the user can count on the algorithm to offer him profiles likely to please him.
The company also founded Hinge Labs, a team of researchers and experts “who look at the evolution of dating culture in our society, what our best opportunities are to help our users, and who have established the Hinge guide that we make available to you.” . to our users,” emphasizes Justin McLeod.
A way for the app to stand out from Tinder, even though the two entities are part of the same group. In fact, Hinge sold all its shares to Match Group in 2021. Justin McLeod justifies this decision: “In the beginning, Hinge was small but promising. It was clear that Match Group was the right partner to help us grow. International expansion, marketing… We needed a big investor.” And for good reason, Bisagra generated $400 million in revenue this year.
However, in its infancy, Hinge was a lot like Tinder before a change in strategy in 2016. And there’s a little personal anecdote behind it all. After giving an interview to New York Times, which clicked, Justin McLeod got on a plane to Switzerland, where his ex-girlfriend Kate lived. She eventually renounced his marriage and went to live with him in the United States. This story was even adapted into an episode of modern love.
Eudes, a 26-year-old Parisian, started using the app while living in England. “I had just broken up with my ex-girlfriend and my roommate was on Hinge at the time. Then she created a profile for me,” he recalls with amusement.
Except that there is the Covid and the confinements. She returned to France in the middle of a pandemic for work. During this period, he was back and forth on dating apps. Hinge was not yet available in France, and obviously “there were almost only international profiles on the app. It didn’t bother me because in my head I was always a bit in London.”
Finally it is thanks to Hinge that he met a girl with whom he stayed for almost two years. Hinge he kept his promise? I’m not sure since Eudes is in the app again. “Now that the app is available in France and with the large number of ads being published, French users are gradually coming to Hinge,” he observes.
To him, it’s just another dating app and it’s still “sort of Russian roulette.”
Therefore, a new opportunity for French singles to find love among the panoply of applications that already exist. Also, the youngest are leaving Tinder. To anticipate this phenomenon, Hinge builds on his initial promise. Be clear with the identity of him “an app made to be deleted” and “it will continue to appeal, we are targeting a selective audience in your research,” adds Justin McLeod.
Although the questioned users do not see it as an application that will revolutionize their romantic encounters, others have found love and even gotten married. This is the case of Pete Buttigieg, the first openly gay candidate for the 2020 US presidential election. She met her husband Chasten Glezman on Hinge. “As soon as I saw the picture of him, there was something in his eyes. I said, ‘I’ve got to meet this guy.’ And then I did it,” Pete Buttigieg said. in an interview in CNN.
Source: BFM TV
