Dating has been around us for centuries. From Adam and Eve to the modern Casanovas, the dating industry has always been hot and will continue to be in demand forever. In the current Internet-driven age, dating is no more a culmination of a chance meeting in the high school, college, workplace, or anywhere else between two individuals. Rather, it is a calculated activity on websites and mobile apps exclusively created for dating and matchmaking. Finding a date online has gained acceptance over the years but building a successful one is still challenging. But don’t worry, we will help you out!
Here is a step-by-step guide for creating a niche dating app that will surely gain users and pay dividends in the long run. In this blog, Doynt shares everything that matters while designing and developing a dating app development.
The Preliminaries
Before you start on the design and development of the dating app, there are a lot of questions that need to be answered and several key points that have to be decided. Let’s study them below:
Define a niche for the website
The Internet dating market is severely competitive and to get ahead of the pack, you have to select a specific niche to cater to. This will increase your chances of success. By narrowing down the target audience, you can set yourself apart from the other dating apps. Here are some options to consider:
- A public dating site or a private one
- A dating app for people from a specific location (African Americans, Asians, etc.)
- An app for specific community (IVY graduates, doctors, etc.)
With an overwhelming abundance of dating apps with many major players, your primary mission should be to find an audience and then work on developing a niche dating app that addresses their needs however outlandish that might be.
Select an attractive brand name and domain
Give this aspect a lot of careful thought while finding the answer to the question how to build a dating app? A poor selection of name can ground your efforts quickly. Running parallel is choosing a domain name because the URL will be linked directly with your brand name. Come up with a catchy and easy-to-remember name that is meaningful and representative of a domain name. It should also reflect the niche that you will be catering to as it will ensure quick recall for repeat visitors.
Settle on a business model
One of the first decisions that you have to make when you think of how to build a dating app is the business model that you want to opt for. This is critical as it will determine the financial returns that can be obtained from the site. There are two options before you; one is an advertisement-based app or a subscription-based model. Take a look at how each might perform from these two examples:
PlentyOfFish.com is a free ad-supported site and has more than 30 million members mainly because it is free. But when it comes to earnings it lags far behind Match.com which is a subscription-based site. With just 1.3 million members, Match.com has grossed almost $350 million in annual revenues. Hence, if you are planning to launch a dating app on a small scale, the subscription-based site should be preferable. A note of caution here, once people pay to visit your site, they will expect top-of-the-line features and performance. That’s why we recommend connecting with professional app designers and developers for your niche dating app.
Draw in customers
Prepare a blueprint of a strong marketing campaign and sign in as many members as possible in the initial stages itself. Offer discounts and incentives on launch offers. Nobody wants to join a dating site with few members. So, this should be your priority for dating app development! Ask your friends and acquaintances to join the site. Run offline campaigns to educate the audience about your app. If you have chosen to go with the subscription model, offer discounted memberships to the first thousand who sign up. After the site is well-populated, you can promote it better through Google and Facebook ads.
Fine-tune the algorithm
Typically, online dating services ask users to fill up a detailed questionnaire that includes lifestyle, work, interests, and hobbies to start with. Some sites just ask for the basics while others are more thorough. For example, eHarmony has a 400-question psychological profile that new signups are required to fill in order to receive matches. When you decide on the fields in the form, it should be governed by the niche and the target audience. Think on the lines of what will value the most for potential users while listing out your requirements on how to build a dating app.
Strictly implement quality control
This does not mean the physical looks of members; it means their online behavior. Online dating sites often have to cope with privacy concerns, sexual harassment, and other types of online abuse. While creating the app, have an option where members can flag the bad behavior of others so that you can withdraw membership privileges if proven. Consult a lawyer to draw up a membership contract that will absolve you of any issues connected with the results of online matchmaking. But then, you cannot control what people will do after they have gone out on a date on mutual consent.
Once the basic groundwork has been laid and these aspects have taken concrete shape in your mind, it is time to take the next step to decide the features that should be incorporated during dating app development.
Must-have Features of a Dating App
Every app regardless of the industry or niche should have specific features that are exclusive to it. The same holds for a dating app. It is all the more important to incorporate top-end features if you are planning a subscription-based app as in this case members can be very demanding. Here are some of the features that will give your dating app a sharp competitive edge over competitors.
Location-based search
To go beyond the virtual world into a real-life dating experience, members must find prospective partners near them. This can be done through a GPS locator embedded in the app which shall fetch eligible users in the vicinity to match with. It will also enhance the user experience.
Swiping to make a choice
A modern dating app should allow easy liking or disliking through a simple act of swiping. When both users like each other, it is deemed to be a match and will subsequently lead to communication with each other. Tinder has made swiping left or right part of the dating culture, and missing on this could be a big mistake.
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Finding matches
Members should know to what extent their profiles match other users. It can be done by grading on a scale of say 1 to 10, the degree of similarity. Also, matches help to monitor whether two members have connected as per the agreement. During the process of how to build a dating app, it is necessary to include non-matching feature too so that anyone can inform the other in very clear terms that he/she is no longer interested in communicating further. This will eliminate the possibility of stalking and negative spamming.
In-built messenger
Communication is the key to a dating app and you should provide all the features necessary to ensure that conversation is smooth and seamless. To power interactions, provide a in-built messenger so that text messages can be exchanged. If you want to provide something out-of-the-box, think of an audio or video chat possibility. But bear in mind, such feature will increase the cost of dating app development.
Suggest first date possibilities
If anybody thinks that getting a date through an app makes life simple, they cannot be more wrong. A match will surely be found but the problem with first-timers is “what next”? Comparing the data and arriving at a match might be a breeze but what is not easy is coming up with a winning and a magical date idea. First-date suggestions and possibilities on your app will be an instant success, especially if a few couples follow your lead and hit it off. Hints like “Classic Date: Dinner and a Movie” or “Spontaneous Date: Arcade and Karaoke” are some of the creative ideas you can check out.
Know who is blocked
Incorporate a feature that let others know if a member is blocked repeatedly. There is no point if a member goes through a painstaking process of filtering and arriving at a user only to find that he/she has been blocked by others. It is advisable to have an option where this is intimated to all at the first step of a search. This will greatly help in checking abuse.
Undoing an accidental swipe
How about the possibility of undoing a swipe that has been accidentally done before a notification is sent out? Tinder has made this a special feature and asks people to become a paid member if they want to undo swipes. This option should be a must-have feature dating app development. It’s up to you whether you want to make it part of the paid package or provide it for free
Testimonials
Have an option for including testimonials from friends of potential matches. It will help to know what others and can even facilitate better matchmaking. It may not be accurate as an element of bias might creep into the testimonials, but it can be taken as a general benchmark to evaluate the nature of an individual.
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Checking on personal preferences
Meeting a match on a dating app is often the first step for greater things in life. Hence, it is advisable to provide lots of space to list out personal preferences. Music preferences, major interests, favorite books, movies through Netflix, and many more are some of the options you can consider adding while building your niche dating application!
Editing messages after sending
People often realize that they have sent out a wrong message in content or spelling. Have a provision to correct them even after they have been sent, provided the other party has not seen it. Such possibilities exist in established messaging platforms like Skype, and you should not have a problem incorporating it during dating app development.
Profile updation features
Newbies will be spending a lot of time making changes in their profile to get them perfect. Having a UX rich module to
How to build a dating app- An endnote
Creating a mobile application is a complex process and therefore expert app developers must be hired for creating a flawless dating app. When it comes to developing a modern dating app, you must always consult a team of experienced and enthusiastic developers.Get in touch with Doynt Technologies and we will build a multi-platform ready dating app for your business. Send in your queries at hello@doynt.com for a free consultation session.