It seems like dating apps are becoming the new normal, especially during this highly unusual Coronavirus pandemic. Most of the country is observing quarantine and spending time at home. With most businesses closed, singles looking for love don’t have the option to meet at the bar.
In response, many developers are trying to make the new Tinder or Bumble; however, the dating app market is already overcrowded and it is tough to create an app that will stand out from the rest of them. Becoming the next big matchmaking app will involve more than just swiping to the left or right. Developers need to think outside the box.
Mei, the NY-based mobile messaging app, believes it has a solution. The team has spent over 4 years analyzing millions of text messages to understand relationships through digital channels. With the help from its users labeling hundreds of thousands of conversations as romantic or not romantic relationships, it has been able to build neural network models that accurately predict the type of the relationship from the text messages that are fed into it, without asking the user. Founder Es Lee says, “we believe complementing a dating app with our AI can help people navigate through dating apps with less frustration and make developers stand out.”
The recently launched API offers dating app developers something extra. It enables them to offer users AI to predict what the conversation will likely turn into. The developers simply send the messages (anonymously, of course) to its AI via the API which can use the words to determine whether this relationship would end up being platonic or romantic. For example, it will come back with “Sympathetic friend” or “Passionate lover”.
Mei says its goes is to save potential users time and frustration by eliminating hookups and non-serious matches. Developers looking to set their app apart from the others and want to learn more can visit the app’s API/partnership page.