In this digital age, where love is often found with a simple swipe or a casual flirtatious text, the significance of dating apps cannot be dismissed. Our quest for companionship has propelled the dating app industry into the mainstream, transforming it into a multi-billion-dollar realm. But what really makes a dating app successful and appealing to its users? What are the best dating app features that not only attract a large user base but also ensure an enjoyable and fruitful user experience?
By understanding these key features, you will gain insight into what makes dating apps like Tinder, OkCupid, and Bumble successful. Whether you’re an aspiring developer, a curious user, or an entrepreneur wanting to take advantage of the online dating landscape, you can benefit from knowing the best features that make dating apps popular.
The Top Dating App Features
These are the top 6 features that a dating app is popular and accepted among users.
Dating Profile Verification
Make sure your dating app features have all the necessary security measures when you design it. Verifying a user’s identity is one popular practice to prevent fake profiles. With the use of a photo verification feature, you may confirm the identity of a new user. The app should ask users to snap a selfie, which is then used to confirm the person’s identity and use image detection APIs to verify if the person is real.
Addressing any instances of harassment is also important for making your dating app safe for users. It should be easy for anyone to report or block another user who sends inappropriate remarks or media. In order to determine whether to permanently ban a user or only issue a warning, it is helpful to review the reports on blocked users.
Another option is to implement automatic moderation and filtering of offensive language in your dating app’s chat function. This will allow you to flag, erase, or blur out any offensive information. This safeguards users from encountering any potentially harmful or unsettling content, which may deter them from continuing to use your app.
Chat Features – Text, Video or Voice
One way that users can get to know their matches on dating apps is through in-app conversations. Having robust in-app messaging capabilities is now crucial for users to communicate in the similar manner as they do on other platforms. Users can express themselves more absolutely and learn more about the other person by sending voice notes, photos, videos, GIFs, and custom emoji reactions.
When developing your app, it’s a good idea to build in the ability to make and receive phone calls and video chats. Video calls remain popular among users as a means of choosing possible dates.
To enhance the video and messaging experience for dating app users, you can provide icebreakers, hints, and in-app activities to assist users who may struggle to start a conversation.
Interest-based Search Filters
The ability to create filters that limit potential matches is a major feature of dating apps compared to traditional dating methods. A geolocation-based filter is one feature that almost all dating apps include. The user can choose their preferred maximum distance for a prospective match’s location using this filter.
Another perk of geolocation is that it allows you to target users depending on their location, which is great if a company is planning in-person dating activities. Even better, it can give marketers more relevant data if they want to use your app to make money.
Some additional filters that can find takers are:
- How someone looks, their height, race, or age.
- Their degree or level of education.
- Goals for dating include “looking for a long-lasting relationship,” “something casual,” as well as “to get married.”
- Personal beliefs or ideals about things like having children, religion, exercise, and dietary habits.
- Hobbies, political movements, food preferences, music, movies, and literature are all examples of personal interests.
You can also implement a subscription plan that offers users access to premium filters, similar to Bumble, and limit the amount of free filters offered.
Gamification
Modern dating app features are gamified in some way, with features like Tinder’s swiping, liking, and disliking of possible matches. Aside from that, there are other ways to make the app more gamified, such as using swipe surges to notify users when there’s a lot of activity and encourage them; boosts to make a user’s profile the “top profile” for 30 minutes and increase the probability of a match; super likes; roses to let another user know they stand out and increase match chances; or additional premium features.
Keep in mind, though, that Gen Z may bring different priorities to the dating scene and dating apps than other generations. Even if you want your app to be well-received and helpful to users, you want them to have a happy experience and not see it as a game they play in the hope of winning.
Social Media Integrations
Integrating your dating app with popular social networks such as Facebook, Instagram, and X can greatly improve the user experience. A user’s interests, appearance, and public persona might be better understood when they connect with a social media account, such as Instagram, to their online dating profile.
From a dating app developer’s perspective, the benefit of social media integration is that it allows users to sign in using their existing social network credentials. It simplifies the login process for them and adds credibility to your app by allowing you to confirm their identities.
The ability to automatically extract useful user data and add it to their profiles is yet another perk of this integration. To assist consumers in trusting and believing each other, you can use Facebook data using the Graph API to display their mutual friends. Connecting with Spotify also allows users to discover more about each other’s music preferences and form bonds based on shared interests.
Internal Profile Ranking
An internal profile ranking is another algorithmic approach to connecting with possible matches, including interests and hobbies that people could have. This function tracks a user’s performance metrics, such as the number of likes or matches they receive. After that, your algorithm can use those performance scores to find compatible matches.
Further analysis of the data can be done to determine the reasons behind the profiles’ varying levels of performance. Users these days prioritize emotional maturity over physical appearance and are open to dating persons from different cities. A strong algorithm may, for instance, reveal whether a particular user’s performance is due to the fact that they were open and honest in their bio.
This data can be used to guide users in the correct way. If a user’s profile isn’t receiving many likes or right swipes, for instance, you could update them via push notifications on ways to boost their engagement. Perhaps a compelling bio that reveals more about them would be helpful. Maybe they aren’t sharing anything interesting about themselves, like their job or their relationship goals, which could be interesting.
Conclusion
When building a top-notch dating platform, it’s important to consider more than just adding the features listed above. Another option is to consult with professionals in the field of dating psychology and sociology, including researchers, behavioral analysts, and matchmakers, to get their thoughts and opinions. With this data, you may create an app that makes dating an exciting and positive experience.
Then you could use dating app solutions from Appscrip to build and deploy dating apps fast and easy. Datum – our prebuilt Tinder clone script has all the features mentioned above and could assist your entry into the online dating landscape.
