Answering the popular question of the decade “How to build a dating app” with steps that expert developers from the industry recommend.
Dating has evolved since the day digitalization came into existence. From websites to mobile apps, dating has become one of the first industries to join the digital race. Thus, apps claiming the title of top dating apps have increased as well. Now, if you are planning to develop a dating app, you should keep a few things in consideration throughout the process. We will discuss these processes further.
Tinder, Bumble, Aisle, OkCupid, and plenty more such names are dominating the dating app market. A Statista report says, in 2022, there were over 366 million dating app users existing around the world. These apps help users create their profiles, add pictures, show off their interests, tell about themselves, and find the right people who are interested in knowing them better.
Dating apps pick the locations of their users and show them other users in the area according to their preferences. To build a dating application, depending on the target market, app developers add filters like gender, height, sexual preference, dating preference, religion, and more. Such filters are used by dating app users to filter the people they might vibe with.
The dating app userbase is diverse. And to build a dating app, it is crucial to understand who you are building the app for. Some crucial dating app statistics shared by Pew Research are useful to understand the categorization of the dating app user base. Let’s have a look!
Well, creating a dating app is a phase-wise journey that can be quite challenging if you are not well aware of the market, available resources, target market, and other such factors that decide the success probability of your app. To develop a dating app that succeeds and stays afloat against millions of other options, you need to find USPs that make your app different from others but also make them extremely useful.
Furthermore, we have tried to cover a few points to help you in answering the question- how to make a dating app? So, without further ado, let’s begin!
You won’t know what problems to solve if you don’t know your target market better. So, the first phase of the dating app development is to invest time and money in researching the target market. The research process covers a few questions-
The above questions give answers that decide how successful your app will be in the future and that is your first phase to answer the question- how to start a dating app?
Well, with many dating applications already existing in the market, you will have to be creative. Take Tinder or Bumble, for instance, both live dating apps are well-known for their inclusiveness. These chat and dating apps also take the security of the LGBTQ+ communities as a priority.
On the other hand, OkCupid promotes itself as an app that helps you in finding your perfect match. And Aisle markets itself as a platform where you find serious relations. As soon as the user signs up on any of these top dating apps 2023, they answer many questions. Later, profiles shown to them are chosen by the AI basis on the answers they submitted and that is how these popular dating platforms stay afloat and thrive in their target markets.
It is well known that many countries and societies are still not open to communities like the LGBTQ+. Thus, it is important to keep their security in mind as well. Tinder has already applied an algorithm to the app that automatically hides LGBTQ+ whenever they enter into the area where these communities are banned. It is done to save users from any unwanted harm or harassment.
Bumble also offers women a layer of security against creepy messages and harassment which can be a great feature for you to integrate in your project if you are planning to make a dating app that focuses on users’ security as well. The feature only allows women to text first even after getting matched on the platform. It gives 24 hours to women to make the first move and if they don’t the other person will not be able to drop unsolicited messages.
While creating the best dating app for Android and iOS or even if you are going for a cross-platform app, it is important to pick the right tech stack beforehand. An app’s tech stack includes the framework to use to build a dating application, technologies like AI, ML, etc which are supposed to power the app’s features, and app testing tools among others.
Many developers like OkCupid are using AI in their Android and iOS dating apps. A dating app technology stack report says, 64% of users looked for partners with the same interest. However, the other 49% of users preferred good looks into their matches. Thus, these factors have to be taken into consideration while building a dating app.
UI of the app either boosts the experience or tones it down. A CXL report states, 94% of first impressions of any platform are related to the design of the platform. The success of your dating app depends on dating app features and design components equally. How easy it is to use your app, how intuitive its features are, what is the color scheme of the app, how easy it is for color-blind individuals to use your dating app, etc are some of the questions that you need to answer while designing your app’s UI.
The cost to build a dating app influences its overall quality and decides how smooth your app development process will go. To prepare a budget to develop a dating app, you will have to cover pre-development costs that go into the research process, app designing process, app prototype building, etc. Other costs will cover the per-hour cost of people building the app, licensing fees.
Not only the UI, but the app should be smooth to use. Thus, make sure that your app has features that are not making it load slowly. But you can release the app in multiple versions as well. For devices with high configuration, more features can be available as they can load heavy apps.
Now that you have a clear understanding of the features you need in the app, the UI/UX design trends for your dating app, the tech stack, the cost, and other such factors, you can kickstart building your app. To make a dating app, you will need to have patience and keep enough timeline to ensure all phases of pre-development, development, and post-development are carried out so a perfect project can be launched into the target market.
To cater to the requirements of the modern world, dating app development has to become modern as well irrespective of the market you are launching it into. It has to be inclusive, sensitive, empathetic, and safe. That can be done if you consider some expectations that modern users possess while you develop a dating app. Let us take you through them!
As the world is getting more inclusive and letting people accept themselves openly, dating apps are required to get more inclusive as well. So, to create a dating app for a society that is inclusive, you will have to use more filters Now, the world is opening up and slowly being more inclusive. Thus, while you create a dating app, you need to create features for the LGBTQ+ communities as well.
It is common for underage teenagers to try to sign up on the app out of curiosity. Thus, you have to make sure the app has only legit users. For the same, you can use AI-supported facial recognition for verification. It will help you in filtering out the profiles that should not be there on your dating chat apps. This verification process will also help you in filtering scam profiles.
In many cases, users have faced harassment, scams, and abuse on dating chat apps. However, it can not be predicted who among all registered profiles, is an abuser. To solve that, it should be easier for the user to report what they experienced on the mobile dating app. To keep the users' privacy safe, you can ask them to submit screenshots of the chat as proof.
Well, now everyone is a good opener of the conversation. Thus, you can help such users by providing them with creative one-liners as the opening messages. It helps users in having an easy best dating app for iOS and Android experience. You can also include a section titled Dating App Tips to help users in figuring out what they should do and what they should not do in messages. There are several top messenger apps like Facebook, Telegram, Instagram, etc that offer such tips as well.
If you have seen the impressive UI of Bumble, it gives users to add prompts about themselves, and for users coming across these profiles, it gets easier to reply with messages after seeing these prompts. That’s how to build dating apps honestly. Using features that make icebreaking easier.
Many top mobile app development companies are providing basic features free. For instance, it is free for users to like each other. However, to review who liked them, it has to be paid. You can also offer some extra premium features like texting even without matching to increase the chances of securing matches.
While planning how you will create a dating application, you need to plan how you will make money out of it too. Your Return on Investment (ROI) strategy has to talk about all possible ways that are available in the target market to help you make money through your app. Some of the popular ways that help developers make money and recover the cost to build a dating app are-
The process to create a dating app requires dedication, patience, and the right amount of available resources. However, once the app is built and deployed, that is when the actual job begins. You need to take care of the app maintenance, keep an eye on the evolving market to upgrade it often and market it regularly so it remains visible.
Lastly, if the question “how to make a dating app” makes you stressed as well even though you have an amazing app idea, hopefully, our blog helps you in planning your development strategy.
He is responsible for marketing programs, brand management, and corporate sponsorships. He thrives on challenges, particularly those that expand the company’s reach. Next to work, Shadow, his dog, immensely contributes to his happiness.
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