The Right Swipe - Alisha Rai Page 0,14
wouldn’t say that. Clearly people do make connections.” He tried to tread carefully. He didn’t want to attack Crush. This was a friendly panel, and the crowd was already here for Rhiannon.
Also, Rhiannon might murder him. “When you’re on a phone and you’re swiping, you’re spending a second? A fraction of a second? On each person. That’s not enough time to get to know them. That’s more of a game than anything.”
“Have you ever used a dating app, Samson?” Rhiannon interjected.
That felt like a trap. He answered honestly. “Only once, for a short period of time. I deleted it almost immediately.”
“Is that how long you spent on each person?”
“No, but I think I’m an outlier.” He’d scrutinized Rhiannon’s—Claire’s—single photo for a while and read her short profile ten times before swiping right. He had it memorized.
Looking for Mr. Right Now, not Mr. Right. Swipe right if you’re down for a night of fun and you’re not going to be a dick about protection or pleasure.
If he hadn’t been staring at her, he would have missed the twitch at the corner of her mouth. “Well, even if some people view it as a game, and you can’t deny that there are those who see any kind of dating as a game, this”—she made a swiping motion—“disrupted how we connect online. Fifty years ago, your potential mate was in a bar or a grocery store. Twenty years ago, your potential mate was on their computer. Today, this is where your potential mate is, on their phone, on their app, swiping for you. Maybe there are slower-paced ways to evaluate someone, but this is where you’ll get the largest pool to choose from.”
All that made sense, but he couldn’t let her paint Matchmaker as a relic from decades ago. “It should be about quality, not quantity.”
Rhiannon’s teeth flashed, and she snapped the trap, looking out at the darkened audience. “How many quality people here are on or have been on Crush?”
The audience cheered. Mentally, Samson cracked his knuckles. Oh, she was wily. No blood, but she’d handily cemented the crowd’s affection.
He would too.
Helena stepped in, perhaps sensing a need for moderation. “Crush does have a small quiz before you sign up. That’s different from other apps.”
“Yes. It’s not a hundred points.” The twist of Rhiannon’s mouth made it clear what she thought about Matchmaker’s system. “We ask simple questions, and most are optional: Do you have kids, want kids? Are you a smoker? How much do you drink? What’s your political party? And then we have one required question: Are you looking for a platonic relationship, a romantic one, or a hookup?”
“Interesting that that’s your required question.”
“Our mission at Crush is to disrupt how you swipe. We’re built on the principles of accountability, kindness, choice, and empowerment. We’ve found that this question encourages users to be honest about their intentions, and it helps curate who we match you with based on what answer you provide.”
Samson thought back to when he’d signed up for Crush. He’d selected hookup and felt vaguely guilty doing it.
“You don’t have to feel bad about what you pick.” There was Rhiannon, reading his mind. “You can be honest.”
“For heterosexual relationships, you also permit women to choose whether they prefer to initiate contact or not.” Helena cupped her chin. “Why not default let the woman start the conversation? Isn’t that the more empowered move?”
“There’s no real one size fits all for empowerment. I will say, our data shows that women who choose to make initial contact do seem to receive less unsolicited dick pics, but that may be anecdotal.” She grinned when the audience laughed. “We immediately block anyone who does that, of course. Zero tolerance on unrequested dick pics.”
Helena turned to him. “Samson, what do you have to say to that?”
He opened his eyes wide. “I’ve . . . never sent a photo like that and don’t understand why anyone would send one without explicit permission.”
The audience laughed louder, and so did Helena. Rhiannon took another drink of water.
“Seriously, though, Matchmaker’s app encourages accountability as well. In fact, if you came to our open house earlier today, you probably saw the launch of our new FaceMatch system. It basically requires users to take a selfie to confirm that they are who they say they are.” That feature had been a real hit at the open house, and it caused a ripple through the audience now.
Rhiannon raised a skeptical eyebrow. “Have you tried it? Because facial recognition is notoriously poor,