A new dating app will keep the photos of potential matches blurred out to encourage users to focus less on appearances.
Called Smore, and co-developed by former Chappy executive Adam Cohen Aslatei, the app was designed to encourage people to focus more on personality and common interests than kneejerk reactions to a person’s looks.
The app will send users five suggested matches each day, but before users can see the unblurred version of the other person’s photos, they’ll have to first go through the rest of their profile.
Smore will give free users five suggested matches each day, but they won’t be able to see a clear photo of their potential match until they’ve tapped on a number of icons that person has picked to indicate their interests and personality
The profiles are mainly composed from emoji-centric tiles that indicate a person’s interests and background.
These including listing your education background, current mood status, astrological sign, turn ons, deal breakers, and general interests.
When another user looks at someone’s profile, they can tap on any of these icons to like them, what Smore calls a ‘wink.’
The more winks a person gives another user’s profile the more in focus their picture becomes, while new groups of personal interest tiles are added to the profile.
To start, free users of Smore will have access to five profiles a day, and the company plans to release a subscription-tier that will give users unlimited ability to browse using a Discover feature.
‘The greatest challenge is resetting expectations for consumers,’ Cohen Aslatei said in an interview with Tech Crunch.
Smore was developed by a former executive from the gay dating app Chappy, which emphasized exclusivity and kindness over raw sex appeal
‘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 ethos is similar to the one at Chappy, which asked its users to take the ‘Chappy Pledge’ before using the app.
‘At Chappy,’ the pledge goes, ‘we believe beauty is found in the way you treat others. Discrimination by race, religion, disability, gender identity, age or anything else is strictly forbidden.’
’By using Chappy, users commit to treating their fellow members with respect, kindness and honesty, without judgment or bias.’
Smore will launch on iOS this year in a select number of US cities, including New York, Boston, Austin, Washington DC, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, and Philadelphia
One set of users the app will pre-judge are those interested in posting hunting photos of themselves.
The app will ban anyone who posts ‘graphic hunting photos’ on their profile, though it doesn’t specify what would make a hunting photo graphic.
The app also won’t allow photos featuring nudity, underwear, or anything that might be perceived as an advertisement.
Smore is planning to launch on iOS this year and will start in Boston, Washington DC, New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Austin, and San Francisco.
