Last October, Los Angles-based Science Inc. launched its newest company, Let’s Date, a service focused on being your social dating identity. Founded by Sean Suhl, Steve Simitzis, and Courtney Riot, the people behind the alternative community Suicide Girls, Let’s Date sets out to be the first entirely mobile dating product that helps match you up based on reactions to dating profiles and actual dates while also learning from it to improve its offerings.
Today, the company is announcing that the app is now available throughout the United States.
The company says that just in January alone, nearly 25,000 real world dates were set up through the app within select markets, including San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles. Other findings that the company has found include the fact that every day, there are 1 million “Let’s Date” or “No Thanks” actions within the app. In a single day, 8,000 people went on a date using a location recommended through Let’s Date. Finally, 130,000 messages were sent between users everyday.
Calling itself the “Instagram of dating”, Let’s Date uses Facebook Connect to log people into its app. It says this is necessary in order to verify who they really are — and to avoid having a Manti Te’o moment. It is believed that only those people with 50 friends are able to join the service.
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Once logged in, users are guided through a few questions and then the app produces a “dating card” through the person’s interest. Afterwards, users can scroll through any potential dater’s cards and choose either “Let’s Date” or “No Thanks”.
If a user chooses “No Thanks” when viewing someone’s card, the app will prompt you to draw lines through the parts of the card that doesn’t appeal to you. If you’re not fond of tattoos or adhere to a specific diet, Let’s Date says it takes the user’s feedback into consideration for future match ups later on. Once a user has elected to choose “Let’s Date”, however, the app will suggest some place local for both parties to meet up, using Yelp and information about their shared interests. Of course, after the date, the app will collect feedback in order to improve its date suggestion.
Interestingly enough, it appears that Let’s Date is also creating incentive for users to come back through earned badges. Other interesting features that the app includes are:
- Chatting: With a revamped chat interface, users can communicate clearly with their dates.
- Matching: Let’s Date tweaked their algorithm to show daters closer to your own age and location to make it convenient for them.
- Socializing: Instagram and Twitter profiles can now be listed on dater cards.
- Vital Statistics: Updated profiles now can display information about the dater, including height and body type.
- Familiarization: Because you’ve authenticated using Facebook Connect, the app can show you the number of mutual friends.
Suhl says that with Let’s Date, he “wanted to create a dating community of daters that could have a beautiful, simple mobile only experience, not just default to proximity, but to find the best possible matches for our daters and present them in a innovative way on their mobile device.”
Unlike other dating services like OK Cupid, eHarmony, Match.com, and others, Let’s Date looks to be a mobile-first app and is only available on the iPhone. However, only those that are 17 years and older are able to download this app.
Photo credit: Chris Hondros/Getty Images
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