
Show HN: Dating app focused on chatting and gamification - cstechofficial
https://blurry.chat
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tlackemann
Gamification is not a selling point.

Users do not care about gamifying the experience. Users care about _the_
experience. Does this solve interesting and new problems in the dating space?
That's the selling point.

The goal of gamification is to act in parallel to an already existing and
positive feedback loop in your app. It rewards what users do. It doesn't drive
what they do.

~~~
erikbye
I agree gamification should not be used as a selling point, even though, of
course, it is hugely important it seems to keep your users hooked.

But are you sure gamification does not sometimes also drive users' behavior on
e.g., Facebook and Instagram?

~~~
tlackemann
If you're going to look at gamification as the primary motivator, I think a
better examples to look at are Untappd and Foursquare. Both of these apps have
very clear and positive feedback loops and use gamification well.

One app encourages me to share various beers I've had with friends. Badges are
a way to have fun while doing that but the willingness for me to share in the
first place was the driving motivator, not the badges. The badges are what
keep me _hooked_ however because I want to collect as many as my friends.
Independent of sharing, badges mean nothing to me as an end user and were
never the motivator for using the app. Sharing was.

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xxpor
Folks, if you're going to write an app (ESPECIALLY a dating app, which has
tons of sensitive info), please hire a native English speaker to write the
strings and the website for you. I know this is not how it's supposed to work,
but this site gives off a strong "creepy foreign company that's going to leak
all your data" vibe.

Some things I noticed:

Using a period instead of a comma as a thousands separator.

Putting the % before the number rather than after.

And the prose in general is just awkward has hell.

~~~
StavrosK
Maybe it gives off a "foreign company" vibe, but the "creepy" and "is going to
leak all your data" is you, I think.

I certainly have never heard anyone say "oh thank God it's Facebook, my data
is safe".

~~~
qnsi
Tbh I trust FB way more with my data than some show HN

~~~
StavrosK
I guess they are very consistent and reliable in what they do with it.

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ftio
The premise is good, I think (I'm not the target audience), but the copy and
positioning need a lot of work.

The positioning reads to me like: "Look at all the awesome features we've
built!" Gems! Coins! Filters! Profile details! I have no idea what any of
those things are, and frankly it's a lot to take in before even downloading
something like this.

I'd look at those features through another lens: "Ever feel like the
connections you make on other dating sites are shallow? Use Blurrychat to
connect on a deeper level. [Then references science that shows how hiding
images produces better outcomes in relationships.]" The focus should be on how
this is better than what's come before — how it produces better outcomes, not
on how people can get Gems or whatever. They'll figure that out later.

Totally subjective impression: the image at the top of the page is creepy to
me. It's something about the guy. The way he looks at the much younger woman
does not give me the warm and fuzzies. Quite the contrary, actually.

Last thing: I think the brand in general is very techy. It'd be great for a
Slack plugin or a hip new CRM, but I think it's too clinical/cold for a dating
app. Check out other dating apps' sites — they're filled with images of
couples hugging, etc. Again, they focus on outcomes, not on the app. (If you
want something edgier, check out OkCupid's site, which to me strikes a nice
balance between edge and warmth.)

~~~
cstechofficial
Thank you for the great feedback. I guess we need to get some advice from a
product vision guy to fix this. We'll fix it soon, I hope :)

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grabball
That man on the hero is a bit creepy

~~~
tyleo
This was also my first thought. The impression I get is that the app is for
older men to date younger women.

Even after reading the rest of the text I feel this thought pervading my mind
for no sensible reason.

~~~
sneak
After reading the OKCupid founder’s data book, I am of the belief that _any_
dating app that is designed effectively to make a decent profit (IAPs and the
like) is mostly just a platform for older men to date younger women.

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neya
I don't know if it's just me, the background image of the app just gave me a
paedophile-ish vibe

~~~
StavrosK
The lady doesn't look underage at all, though.

~~~
krapp
Legally, no.

Socially, though, yes. The generally accepted limit on age differential in
romantic relationships is ten years - 50 year olds shouldn't date younger than
40, 40 than 30, etc. While it's perfectly legal and possible to have a healthy
relationship with a wider age gap, it's not socially acceptable.

~~~
StavrosK
Sure, but it doesn't make you a pedophile, and having sex with a 40 year old
when you're 60 isn't the same as having sex with a 10 year old when you're 30.

~~~
krapp
True, but when one of the parties appears obviously young and the other not,
people tend to get creeped out by it just the same, and in kind of the same
way. As sexual taboos go it's not the worst and the stigma isn't always fair
but it is what it is.

I attribute a lot of that to the increasing youth-orientation of modern
culture, since "May-September" relationships have been common throughout
history, although legitimate concerns about abusive power dynamics and
exploitation do sometimes arise in the modern context.

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tyfon
I'm married so I'm not really in the target audience, however when I see
things like this my first question is always data and privacy.

In fact, I have a question, is there any privacy focused dating apps that have
been externally audited etc? It might be an opportunity.

Back to this app.

How does it store data?

How does it use analytics?

How do they make money? Especially since they seem to _give_ money to use it:

"No Need To Pay, Earn Coins By Watching Videos

You don't need to pay us to get boosted. You can watch videos and earn
Blurcoins to use for gems. It's not over, we also give you Blurcoins for each
day of usage."

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sigio
This reminds me of paiq(.nl) ... which has been around for 15 years or so ?
.... You chatted with randomly selected matches, and the more you chatted, the
less blurry the pictures became.

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davidajackson
I thought most people want a visual filter first? And if this is a product for
another part of the market, how does this their experience more efficient?
Doesn't blurring an image just decrease the efficiency of the filter? (i.e.
one side feels they have 'wasted' time chatting that they wouldn't have
initiated shown the non-blurred images first). Eager to be proven wrong, and
would love to hear other thoughts.

~~~
cstechofficial
Thanks for the feedback. In other platforms it is really hard to find a match
because the biggest reason to be able to match is your appearance. For
example; even the good-looking guys cannot get match in Tinder lately. Even
the appearance isn't enough to get to talk to people. In Blurry Chat you need
to have a good conversation to reveal the person you talk to. The conversation
you have will be the key point to your journey. Blurring isn't decreasing the
efficiency of the filter, you can still filter the gender, age and most
importantly location. If you don't want to waste your time on talking, you can
reveal people's photos using reveal or blurdrop gems. While we are offering
this, we are offering privacy on your photos too. You can use shield gem to be
immune to reveal and blurdrop gems as well. In addition, guys might be looking
for rapid results but the ladies aren't the same :)

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bszupnick
I'm definitely not in the dating scene, but I just love the novel approach to
what feels like a dead horse. Awesome job!

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lr4444lr
A dating service where you can't view pictures up front? Reminds me of the
late 1990s, early 00s...

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zabana
Unrelated to the post but I have a question: for those of you who actively use
dating apps, what advantages do you find over approaching women (or men) in
real life ? I ask because yesterday I played around with tinder on my friend's
phone and I felt a bit off after half an hour of dismissing people based on
just their looks and a couple of lines on their profile.

~~~
raziel2p
There are no advantages, but many people (myself included) just don't end up
in situations where it feels appropriate to randomly approach strangers in a
romantic or sexual pursuit. There's the fear of rejection, but mostly not
wanting to behave inappropriately (this might just be a northern/central
european thing). There's no way for me to know who around me at a
party/concert/whatever are single and interested in meeting, I'm not the most
self-confident (even when people have come to my place after a date I've been
hesitant), I'm not very good at picking up social cues (I've missed several
hints in the past), I'm not attractive enough to have women just randomly
stare at me like you might see in the movies, so dating apps at least get you
over that hump.

You're absolutely right that it feels off though, to some extent it's
dehumanizing. Then again, think about how often you subconciously dismiss
people based on looks or first impressions in real life. However, unless you
use the app purely to have one night stands you also get the chance to meet
great people - many of the nicest people I've met in life have been through
apps.

~~~
ChuckNorris89
_> There's no way for me to know who around me at a party/concert/whatever are
single and interested in meeting_

Ummm, you just ask. Not as in _" Hey, are you single?"_ but _" You seem
interesting, how about a coffee next week?"_. The answer will tell you
everything to know.

Seriously guys, women aren't some strange alien creatures, they're human
beings and they appreciate it when you're direct and take initiative and hate
men who beat it around the bush waiting for the girl to make the first move.

 _> I'm not attractive enough[...] so dating apps at least get you over that
hump_

In my experience it's the opposite, you use live dating if you're not
attractive enough for dating apps as those favor only the top percentile of
attractive men and being average gets you nowhere.

~~~
saiya-jin
That's a very womanly perspective. Normal guys don't have it that easy - being
direct to a lady who likes you brings completely different results to one that
doesn't - easy to be labeled stalker/creepy/to be laughed at etc.

If situation would be reverse (girls chasing guys), ladies would be constantly
complaining how hard is it to succeed, how afraid are they of the
failure/rejection.

It takes time to build the confidence women love so much (unless you are an
arrogant extrovert, then you have more than plenty). One of the reasons there
are many couples where guy is much older. Not so much the other way around.

~~~
ChuckNorris89
_> Normal guys don't have it that easy_

That's just a bad mindset. Life is never easy for most people but being a
_normal guy_ is more than enough to be successful with women.

Look in the mirror, and see if you'd like to date the person in front of you.

If not, then: Go to the gym, eat and sleep well, stay in shape, fix that bad
posture, fix those crooked teeth, groom that neckbeard, wear sharp clothes,
get a sharp haircut, go out and practice your social skills and most
importantly be confident about yourself.

All of the above can be done by any _normal guy_ as long as you're determined
and willing to stick to a long term self improvement plan and put in the
necessary work.

The problem is most guys are lazy(I was one of them) and don't want to put in
the work to improve themselves and expect women to magic themselves in their
arms while they sit on their couch and watch *hub and complain that good
looking guys have it easy.

