Case Study : How We Created A Social Online Dating App?

Just when you think about modern dating; one thing that pull hearts in the eyes is surely the ‘online dating app’. The hookup culture has become infectious amongst millennial and turned them into date-hungry swipe freaks.

We can’t agree more online dating apps have drenched people despite the teething troubles and disappointments that comes stapled with the app.

People are actively trying to find meaningful relationships, or just want to casually hookup. And we can’t deny the dating apps provide them all.

The whole selling point of the dating app is no wonder “Oh, you can so easily find a date”. But to its bad with many invisible strings attached.

We focused heavily on the negative surfaces of on-demand dating and thought to curb those sucking points.

Here we discuss with you a detailed case study of online dating app development.

The Downsides of Online Dating

• As per a research report from pew research, 30% of U.S. adults have used a dating app. Out of them a majority of online daters shared their overall experience as positive, but many users – particularly younger women – reported being harassed or sent explicit messages on these platforms.
• 45% of Americans who have used a dating app said the experience left them more frustrated as for example 60% of female users aged 18 to 34 complained people continued to contact them even if they were not interested.
• 57% of females reported being sent a sexually explicit message or image they didn’t ask for.
• People sometimes express regret that these platforms facilitate superficial relationships rather than meaningful ones. They find themselves engaged in flirty message exchange and sometimes they are deceived by ghost profiles.
• In many cases, people find themselves stuck if they’re matched with wrong type of person.
• Many singles feel mentally fatiguing to find a right match with people as they have to swipe profile after profile.
• Many people find themselves out of decent matches as there are a slew of people moving in and logging onto the apps.
• There are a plethora of other pain points as well that surely hit bad and makes the experience draining.

Solving the Pain Points and Frustrations

“Everything is fair in love and law”

• Bringing in a legal framework governing mobile matchmaking that regulates dating apps. For example, laws and regulations would come into effect over issues like misuse of private, sensitive data, and its wrongful disclosure.
• Launching the app with a global privacy programme developed to meet all the applicable GDPR standards. In this case, regardless of the country users are living in; they have to follow the same rights and access the same data.
• To counter the problem of mental fatigue the app will restrict the amount of time spent on dating app by the user.
• To avoid the certainty of getting tucked with wrong dates; the app will compel user to respond on some serious questions while signing up. This will portray the right image of user to others and will not keep others in wrong notion. Like for e.g. users will tick if they are looking for a meaningful relationship. Reading this; casual daters will avoid spending time with them.
• If the user is running out of decent matches, he/she can set a radius or an area/location where they want to meet people.

Development of Key Functionalities : App Features

• Sign up

Our first concern was to set off a red flag against users that breach the app privacy laws and get involved in some mischievous acts that leak the sensitive user data, outrage their modesty and/or contain sexually explicit words or photos that encourage harassment.

To answer this, during sign up process where user has to fill in basic details (like name, email, phone, personal identity card, location, date of birth, profile picture, etc.) we made it mandatory for the user to agree on terms and conditions set in the app that attaches some legalities and regulations with a global privacy program designed to meet applicable GDPR standards.

• Sign-in

Easy onboarding with registered email id/phone no. and OTP.

• Social Login

Users can also login using Facebook, Instagram, or Google ID.

• Upload Profile Picture or Video

Users can upload their single/multiple profile pictures and also opt to upload the video to introduce themselves.

Find Nearby Daters Geolocation integration allows users to fetch contacts nearby their location.

• Find Location-Specific Daters

To make the date finding experience a breeze, we have integrated a geofencing functionality in the app that allows daters to search location-specific matches.

• Swipe Daters

Unlike other dating apps, this dating app allows users to swipe other potential daters that fall in their interest list (selected during sign-up). Like daters set on following priorities will be displayed first:

1. 1. Matching basic interests
   2. Based on Relationship mood- casual, hook-up, serious
   3. Geographical Location/selected location radius (geofencing)
   4. Total number of mutual friends

• Accept/Reject Request

Users can accept or reject potential matches. Other users can engage in communication only if the user accepts the connection request.

• It’ a Match

A user can chat, call, or video call other people only if there’s a match.

• Real-time Chat

Daters can connect each other safely with encrypted chats. To keep the conversation completely private we have restricted screenshots. Read receipts are also enabled.

• Video/Voice Calling

Users can make video/voice calls with their matches and mature conversations and relationships ahead without exchanging their numbers until they’re sure.

• Privacy Controls

For paid users, there is a standard-setting available where users can control toggles like:

1. 1. Hide profiles you’ve visited
   2. Allow only paid members to visit your profile
   3. Display profiles only based on your search criteria
   4. Nobody can view your profile until you send them a connect request

• Filter Searches

Users can search daters based on filters like:

1. 1. Relationship mood: casual, hook up, serious
   2. Job profile like businessmen, doctor, designer, architect, engineer, etc.
   3. Location-based searches (country, state, city, area, pin code)
   4. Mutual friends
   5. Height, age, language, interests, etc.

• Buy Subscription

Users can buy app subscription (Pearl, Platinum, and Emerald) to upgrade their profile and access a different set of features.

• Block/Report Users

To maintain personal security, users can block other members they would not like to get in touch with. They can also report users violating the app norms.

• Lift Me Feature

If the user wants to bypass the queue and come on top of the searches he/she can access the paid feature ‘lift me’. This will increase their visibility in the searches.

Technologies We Used

Behind this beautiful app UI, our developers have engineered a strong back end built with top tools and technologies. Since the app was built on Android and iOS, two teams worked on it – iOS & Android app development team.

Web Platform

• Language : PHP
• Database : MySQL (relational)
• Framework : Laravel
• Front End Development : HTML and jquery
• Caching : ReDIS non-relational database for all data storage

Android Application Technology

• Programming Languages : Java(version 8/9)
• Toolkit : Android Studio 3.4.0 & Android Developer Tools
• Architecture Pattern : MVVM
• Chatting & Video Messaging : Soket.io

iOS Application Technology

• Programming Language : Swift 4.0
• IDE : XCode 10.0

Project Handover

The dating app development process took almost 3 months. During the development, the project was divided into milestones, as soon as we reached completion we have launched the app for beta testing.

Post successful app deployment, we’ve continually worked on bug fixing and maintenance support.

Codiant has hands-on expertise in developing different types of online dating app solutions. If it sparks an interest in you drop us a line. We will show you a quick demo that best matches your app requirement.