Fed Up With Traditional Dating Apps? Try This
Anyone who’s been on dating apps for more than a hot minute knows that frustration and apathy often accompany them. Once the initial excitement of sexy local singles abates, you’re left with a disappointing array of profiles. Before long, you find yourself sighing at profiles that question whether pineapple belongs on pizza, claim anonymity “for work”, and which detail a long list of what a potential match shouldn’t be. And so, online dating begins to feel like admin.
If you regularly find yourself deleting dating apps and embarking on a mission to make the most of chance connections but feel apprehensive to do so, you need Genie Connections (GC).
Don’t let an opportunity for connection pass you by
The next-generation dating app, Genie Connections, takes the guesswork from finding out whether the attractive person on the tube is single by showing you nearby profiles seeking love. Using Bluetooth, the app shows you local profiles and once you’ve connected, GC helps you make the first move without the scary business of speaking to a stranger on a silent commuter train. With GC, an opportunity for a spark isn’t missed.
I spoke with Katie Knowles, Genie Connections’ Chief Marketing Officer, and she told me, “It’s amazing how [the Bluetooth feature] has already started to grow organically. Having been in the industry for a long time, I’ve seen how quickly something really popular like this spreads and grows, so we have a trajectory to get it into all the major cities.”
If you’re worried about sharing your location with strangers online, fear not; the app creators are fanatical about privacy and the app only shows other users the area you’re in, not which road you’re on (a criticism I recently had of the dating app Thursday).
Who is Genie Connections for?
As you’d expect from a modern dating app, Genie Connections is available to all genders and sexual preferences, and users can adjust their settings within the app (to avoid heterosexual individuals scoping out the competition, this is offered as a premium feature). At the time of writing, Genie Connections has 30k active profiles and subscribers are predominantly 18-40 years old with an even gender split of daily users. As a result, users have more opportunities to connect with a potential match than on other dating apps where the user base is heavily skewed towards men.
The app also has barriers to prevent fake profiles: chiefly, when setting up a profile, users have to copy a post for the AI robot to confirm identity. “Genie Connections aims to completely clean up the industry. [People] trying to put up fake profiles will not be able to get through the profile completion,” Katie informs me.
Do we really need another dating app?
According to Katie, we do. Here’s why:
“With Genie Connections, we’re targeting all those people feeling totally demoralised and let down by the current dating app offerings. We aim to listen to users and address all the issues that singles are experiencing. Our founder is very visionary and our team don’t want to morph into becoming just another dating app. There is a huge need to create an app that gives users a meaningful and fruitful experience – and we feel like we’ve really cracked it with Genie Connections. We’ll continue expanding and enhancing in-app features; our goal is to keep working hard to improve and reinvent the wheel.”
Find out more at Genie Connections.
Katie explains, “The Genie Connections algorithm does not work in the same way as other apps. We don’t match people on common interests, or if you have swiped right on certain types (men with beards or blonde women). Instead, GC has a ‘Same League rating’.” Here’s how it works:
“Studies show that most men and women lie between 5-7 in a [subjective attractiveness] ranking, with a small percentage below and a small percentage above [this range].” Yet men and women swipe differently, so this skews the scoring data. Men tend to swipe right on most women – “This means most women appear towards a 9” – and women tend to swipe right on 1 in every 14 profiles – so “most men are skewed towards 2-3.”
“Genie’s new system determines a more accurate mental ranking of a particular profile. Singles are then able to see the percentage probability of them being in the same league with another user [The Chemistry Rating], and therefore the probability of being a mutual match.”
How do I get started on Genie Connections?
The last thing you want to do when you’re suffering from dating app fatigue is to set up another dating app profile, but Genie Connections makes it easy.
Katie says, “We have a balance of steps for users to take, enough to ensure we are getting genuine, sincere and also considerate users, but at the same time making sure that signing up and using the app does not become a chore.”
Signing up is easy:
- Download the app for free on Google Play or the App Store
- Enter and verify your phone number
- Add a password and your email for account recovery
- Enter promo code PrinceCharming22 for £20 worth of free credits to use within the app. Most of the features in the app are free, but there are a few upgrades to spend the credit on (e.g. Invisible Mode – swipe anonymously; buy more swipes; buy more fetches – “undo” your last swipe left)
To create your profile:
- Add a photo, verify your identity with a selfie (don’t worry, only the AI robot sees this)
- Enter your name, date of birth (only your age is shown), gender and romantic preferences
- Upload at least four photos, add your education, your job, and a short bio
- Add the typical info: vices, desires, background, hobbies etc.
“We have made several minor changes since launch, just by focusing our efforts on watching our customers’ journeys and adapting aspects that we are told are not easy to follow. We prompt our customers but not in an imposing manner like many dating apps. We are genuinely interested in our users enjoying the experience so they tell their friends. We have a big refer-a-friend program launching, so it is vital we get it right and give our customers an enjoyable effortless service,” Katie tells me.
How do I connect with local singles?
When you set up your profile, GC runs you through the swiping rules:
- Genie presents two profiles, you can only swipe right on one of them (this helps the algorithm learn your preferences)
- Up to three times a day, you can swipe right to both profiles
- You can swipe left on any profile so if one profile is a clear “no”, you can discard them, keeping the other presented profile to compare with a new profile. But you can only swipe left on three consecutive profiles, then the profile you’ve kept up is discarded and another profile appears
- Spotted a user you want to notice you? Send them a Crush
Bear in mind, the free version caps the number of swipes each day. When you run out, your swipes are refreshed the next day.
Features I love:
1. Find out if that sexy person you walked past is single
(…and on the app…) If a user comes into your Bluetooth range, they’ll appear on your screen. Genie Connections is a harmonious blend of online and real-world dating.
2. Set your preferences for free
Change the default settings so you only see profiles within a specified age range and up to a certain distance.
3. Swipe in dual-view mode (and single-view mode if you’re a woman)
Katie tells me “It is widely known that over 93% of men swipe right on pretty much every profile [when presented with one profile after another], compared with women who (on average) only swipe right 1 in every 14 profiles.
Genie Connections doesn’t show a user one profile at a time; it always shows two profiles, and a user can swipe right on only one of them. Faced with two options and one choice, the user must genuinely think before they swipe. It has forced men to take ample time to review the profiles. On average, a guy will now take 37 seconds to evaluate the profile on GC, as opposed to the typical two seconds it takes for a guy to make a decision on other dating apps that don’t have this genius modification.
The dual-view mode evens up the playing field between male and female users and means that men’s right swipes on GC are far more genuine, leading to more fruitful matches and engagement.”
Another way Genie Connections evens out the playing field is by allowing women to switch to the traditional single-view mode for greater chances of swiping on someone appealing.
What can we expect from Genie Connections in the future?
For the time being, Genie Connections is currently only available in the UK, but a state-by-state US launch is planned for early 2023. And with the Bluetooth connectivity feature being such a success in London, there are plans to rapidly release this feature across the whole of the UK.
Beyond the app, at some point, the team at GC will “be looking to put some events together. We sampled this in the early days to test the Bluetooth feature and it was incredibly successful. The customer engagement was off the scale! Plus, with such a visionary founder and enthusiastic team, we aim to keep reaching for the stars in terms of improving and innovating,” Katie says.
Watch this space!
