An online dater was so fed-up with Tinder she created her own app – where users describe themselves with HASHTAGS.
Chinese American Yuyan Chow, 28, was frustrated with the app’s ‘superficial appearance-oriented approach.’
The programme developer launched TagDates instead, which relies on people adding hashtags to their profiles which potential matches can read quickly and easily.
Yuyan said: ‘ I had so many bad matches. But I thought what Eric Cartman said about online dating was true, that you have to wade through a lot of dicks to find the one you love, and quite literally… I didn’t give up until a point where there were just too many jerks in my life as a results of using Tinder. I pulled out.’
Yuyan said that TagDate differs from other apps in its use of tags. It is believed to be the first of its kind that relies entirely on the short descriptions.
‘On Tinder, you can always tell which accounts are fake or over-engineered,’ she added.
‘Everybody tries to look the best but not everybody can, so they put fake photos or try to look certain way in front of the camera. You ended up with a lot of matches that are purely based on superficial interest that leads nowhere.
‘On TagDates, you can describe yourself in an honest and creative way. People who don’t have great looks will have a chance to shine, because you are being viewed in combination with your hashtags.’
‘You can hashtag yourself anything, like you do on Twitter, and get people who is interested in the same thing to explore your profile and talk to you. I have seen some really genuine ones, like #wantSomeoneToLove and #loveTVShows.’
‘You can write almost everything. Except when it is very explicit. But if people are creative, they will find a way. The app is about inner beauty and how creative you are in using and phrasing your five tags will be a way to channel yourself to the outside world, to your potential date. ‘
The app TagDates asks users to write 5 tags about themselves and these tags will be showed in a roulette type of gam much that like on Tinder, the difference is that other users will not be judging one another based on how hot or attractive one looks at first sight, but how their self-described tags come across.
You can “Like Tag” or “Skip” the tags you are not so sure about.
Yuyan said she picked up a book in the bookstore when she got bored a couple of years ago and had been coding iOS apps ever since.
She said: ‘I did all the design with a 30USD mac app. The results were almost indistinguishable from professionally designed apps created in companies with teams of graphics and UX designers.
‘I made 60 apps like this, all by myself. But TagDates is my proudest invention.’
After almost a year after launch, her dream took flight as the app’s usage improve month after month, where more and more people are making connections on her app. She continues to bring more features to improve the app. Currently the app supports more functions than some professionally designed app.
