According to former Chappy Managing Director Adam Cohen-Aslatei, "something more" is one of the most common pieces of feedback that dating apps get from their users. That's where S'More comes in.
S'More was founded by Cohen-Aslatei to provide a dating app to users that goes beyond superficial looks.
Here's how it works:
Rather than scrolling through a feed and swiping left and right, users are served five suggested profiles each day. Unlike other dating apps, user profiles on S'More consist of icons, rather than pictures and text, which reveal characteristics about the profile's owner. For example, a user might put that they're seeking romance, interested in hiking and got an education from this or that university, all in the form of little tile icons.
When a user interacts with those icons — S'More calls this a "wink" — more visual pieces of the profile start to unblur and unlock, revealing a profile photo and unlocking the person's social media feeds, etc.
These interactions also unlock the ability to have a conversation, if they're reciprocated, which creates a match.
As users continue to interact with others on the platform, S'More learns about what they're looking for in a relationship and optimizes for those factors when suggesting other profiles.
"The greatest challenge is resetting expectations for consumers," said Cohen-Aslatei. "We know that the swiping mechanism largely doesn’t work, but we’re providing another option which is, if you truly want to get to know someone, suspend physical judgement before you decide if you like them."
The company plans to generate revenue through a freemium model, charging users extra to access a Discover page on the app, allowing them to interact with and save more profiles than the allotted five per day.
Moreover, S'More asks all users to rank one another, not as prospective mates but as users of the platform. The hope is that the public-facing user rating promotes a healthy, safe environment for all users to meet and connect without the abuse that's so common on dating apps. Ratings are also determined by a user's activity on the platform and how complete their profile is.
The company also requires that users who register take a selfie for ID verification right at the point of signing up.
S'More is launching in beta to Boston and the D.C. area with plans to launch in New York soon.
