Tinder tested group video chat ahead of Match’s move into social discovery with Hyperconnect deal – ProWellTech

As dating app Tinder and its parent company Match explore the future of personal connection through apps, it’s interesting to see what kind of ideas it tested but later dumped. One such experiment was something called the “Tinder Mixer,” which temporarily gave Tinder users the opportunity to participate in group video chats and “play games” with others nearby.

The feature was briefly tested in New Zealand last year but will not be released.

The Tinder Mixer Experience was discovered by App researcher Alessandro Paluzziwho found references to the product in the code of the Tinder Android app. He hadn’t published the findings yet as we were working to find out more about the origin of the product.

Photo credits: Alessandro Paluzzi (opens in a new window)

The resources he found on the dating app had given the appearance of a product in the middle of development, Paluzzi noted, but it turned out to be one that was already being tested and quickly shut down when Tinder was running its other ones Experiments continued in the dating market.

According to Tinder, the Tinder Mixer review has no impact on its product roadmap this year, and the Tinder Mixer experience described here will likely never exist.

What made the product particularly intriguing, however, was that Tinder ventured more, albeit briefly and experimentally, into a social space of discovery compared to the usual Tinder experience. Typically, Tinder users swipe, vote, chat, and sometimes even on partners’ profiles Video call each other in one-on-one. But Tinder doesn’t offer live video chat with a group today.

Photo credits: Alessandro Paluzzi (opens in a new window)

However, the idea of ​​going live on video is not new to Match.

This is an area the company has already experimented in, including with its Plenty of Fish apps which provides one-to-many video transmission function, and Ablo, which offers one-on-one video chat with people around the world. These experiments represent what the company calls “dating-adjacent” experiences. In other words, you could meeting someone through these video interactions, but that’s not necessarily their main goal.

Photo credits: Alessandro Paluzzi (opens in a new window)

Those video experiences continued as Match announced it would acquire Seoul-based Hyperconnect for $ 1.73 billion – its largest acquisition ever and one that will move the company into a future that will “ Social Discovery and Live Streaming Market.

The company believes social discovery is an area of ​​great potential and a market it values ​​that could actually be twice the size of dating.

Speaking at the JP Morgan Technology, Media and Communications Conference recently at the JP Morgan Technology, Media and Communications Conference, Shar Dubey, Match Group CEO, noted that on some of its larger platforms, Match has found that a number of its users are looking for more of “a shared experience and a “A sense of community among other like-minded singles on the platform,” she said.

She noted that technology has reached the point where people can now interact with others through richer experiences than the traditional dating flow of swipe-match chat allowed, including few-to-few, many-to-many, and one-to-one many. many kinds of experiences.

Hyperconnect brings much of the technology into Match that would allow the company to expand in these areas.

Today it offers two apps, Azar and Hakuna Live, that users can use to connect to each other online. The former, launched in 2014, focuses on one-on-one live video and voice chats, while the latter, launched in 2019, takes place online. It is no coincidence that these apps reflect the live stream experiences that Match had on Plenty of Fish and Ablo.

Since these live streaming services are often more widely adopted by younger sections of the population, it makes sense that Match might also wanted to test such a live stream experience on Tinder, which also distorts younger people, even if the test ultimately only served the possibility of Collect data instead of informing about the development of a specific future product.

With the Hyperconnect deal nearing completion, the new Match apps will initially provide a greater presence in the live streaming and social discovery market in Asia – 75% of Hyperconnect usage and sales come from markets in Asia. Match then plans to use its international experience and knowledge to accelerate its growth in other markets where it has not yet made a breakthrough.

Another important reason for the acquisition, however, is that Match sees the potential to leverage Hyperconnect technology in its existing portfolio of dating apps to not only create richer experiences but also to appeal to users in markets where the “Western “Kind of online dating is not possible yet has been fully embraced, but social discovery has.

“We believe there is real synergy in bringing some of those experiences that are popular on social discovery platforms to our dating platforms, as well as improving social discovery platforms and helping people improve their dating experience. Achieving intentions if they so choose, ”Dubey stated at the JP Morgan conference.

What this could mean in concrete terms for Tinder is not yet known.