Hinge, the dating app that matches friends of friends, unveiled a new ‘Most Compatible’ feature to help you avoid finger fatigue while searching for the love of your life.
The app uses the Gale-Shapley algorithm, a method developed 56 years ago to solve ‘the stable marriage problem’ — a classic topic of party conversation for theoretical economists in the ’50’s.
(Spoiler: Gale and Shapley were NOT star-crossed lovers, just economics professors.)
Robo matchmakers just got smarter
The algorithm ranks Hinge members by their preferences, pairing each member off with the member they would theoretically prefer most. The ‘Most Compatible’ recommendations appear simultaneously for both parties and disappear after 24 hours.
The method is designed to avoid endless browsing and increase success. And it seems to work: In trials, Hinge found the new feature 8x more likely to result in dates.
The change requires a lot of faith in robo-Hitch
With less visibility than ever into the secret love sauce, some Hingers are frustrated that they don’t know how the robo matchmaking works.
Hinge claims it’s designed to get people ‘off’ the app and into relationships and says and the feature won’t prevent ‘discovery.’
Regardless of whether the algorithm works for you, it’s working for Hinge. The company saw a 400% increase in user activity after eliminating the standard ‘swipe’ feature.