A new dating app has launched in the UK that aims to put women in complete control by allowing only them to browse and swipe – anonymously.
Reveal has a simple to use browse and swipe layout but is different to the likes of Tinder and Bumble in that only male profiles are visible and females are initially hidden.
This guarantees genuine matches by preventing men from liking every profile to ‘play a numbers game’ – which research suggests as many as a third do.
This is frustrating for women who find many of their matches do not reply to their messages.
It also allows women to avoid having people they know in real life – such as colleagues and ex-lovers – to see them on the dating app.
New dating app Reveal has launched in the UK aiming to put women in complete control
As only women browse it prevents men from liking every profile to ‘play a numbers game’
Research suggests as many as a third of males auto-swipe right on profiles – but Reveal promises to guarantee genuine matches
Reveal has an intentions feature – showing if users want to date or ‘hook-up’
On Reveal users can be clear about their intentions – whether they want to date or if they are seeking a more causal ‘hook-up’.
The founders of Reveal say it offers a unique solution to the problems that women seeking dates online are experiencing.
Director Tom Buzzard told MailOnline: ‘A well-known trick that many men use is to swipe right on everyone they come across just to see who has ‘liked’ them.
‘They’re playing a brutal numbers game: The thinking is that the more darts you throw the more that are bound to hit the board. It can also be an ego boost for some men.
‘This can be very frustrating for women, who are pickier about who they match with and take time to read profiles, since many men they are paired are not replying to their messages.
‘They’re fed up with getting “ghosted” – because it wasn’t a genuine match, or the men have many matches and no time to respond.
‘By allowing only the women to browse, Reveal prevents this and provides women with better chances of finding a meaningful relationship.
‘It is also the only app on the market where females are initially invisible. Our research suggests women can feel uncomfortable with people they know seeing them on dating sites.’
The app does not allow women to get a lot of unwanted messages like some do
Discreet dating
Reveal’s layout is similar to the likes of Tinder and Bumble. The woman browses photos and if she’s interested, she swipes right – if not, she swipes left.
It is free to use and its inventors plan to make money from advertising.
The app is the brain child of three school friends – Mr Buzzard, Edward Harvey and Sean Ferriter – who conceived the idea after hearing of their female friends’ frustrations with existing dating apps.
Mr Buzzard, 31, who founded Kalo Sport, a north London-based sports coaching service with Mr Harvey, said: ‘We were hearing that some of our female friends were being made to feel uncomfortable in the workplace, when colleagues or even bosses were being flirtatious or asking them out after seeing them on dating apps.
‘It occurred to us that there was a gap in the market for an app that protects women’s identities, and we knew men auto-swiping was an issue too so we set about designing an app that solved both problems.
‘Our market research also suggests women want to know upfront what men’s intentions are – whether they are looking for a relationship or something more casual.’
The app also allows women to avoid being seen by people they know in real life
The problem of auto-swiping
A 2016 study on Tinder users found men are much more likely to swipe right than women. It discovered 33 per cent of men followed the strategy of liking all profiles while no females reported doing this.
Instead, 93 per cent of women reported only liking profiles they are attracted to, according to the research led by Dr Gareth Tyson from Queen Mary University London.
Research suggests as many as a third of males auto-swipe then later filter out matches
As many as 80 per cent of male users who admitted to ‘casually’ liking most profiles said they swipe right on more than half of all the women they see.
The researchers said that the trend might be explained by what is known as a ‘feedback loop’.
‘Men see that they are matching with few people, and therefore become even less discerning: women, on the other hand, find that they match with most men, and therefore become even more discerning,’ they wrote.
There are even apps designed to take the hassle out of liking every profile on Tinder by doing it for men and a ‘mechanical thumb’ called Tinda Finger that can be attached to their phones to constantly swipe right on all profiles.
And a separate study last year claimed to have revealed the ‘sad’ reality of online dating – that only a small percentage of messages on dating apps actually get a reply.
Led by Jennie Zhang from Oxford University, it found when women message first, men only reply 42 per cent of the time.
In around half of the conversations, the other person did not respond. When men messaged first, women wrote back about 53 per cent of the time.
HOW DOES REVEAL WORK?
A screenshot of Reveal’s search settings
Reveal works in a similar way to the likes of Tinder and Bumble.
You browse photos and if you’re interested, you swipe right – if you’re not, you swipe left.
It takes minutes to set up a profile and the app requires you to have a Facebook account. Users have to be over 18.
Once enabled, you can write a concise 500-character bio and add up to six images, which can be imported from your Facebook profile or your phone’s camera roll.
When browsing, the app shows you a photo, name, and age. You can tap on the photo to see additional pictures and hitting a button reveals additional information.
Search settings allow you to set your preferences for distance and age range.
Women only become visible when they swipe right on a man, then he gets a notification and can choose to swipe right or left. If he swipes right, a screen will appear showing that you’ve matched and inviting you to send them a message.
Once matched, there are two icons above your messages that the man and woman can click on to reveal that they intend to date or hook up with the other person.
This intention is then only revealed if both users have mutually clicked on the same option.
There is a ‘pending’ section for females that shows the guys they’ve swiped right on who are yet to make a decision.
Gap in the market
Tinder’s rival, Bumble, was created in 2014 with the intention of addressing the problem of ‘ghosting’, and was marketed as the first ‘female-friendly’ dating app.
It dictates that women make the first move, and if users don’t respond to a match’s message within 24 hours they will be automatically unmatched.
But Mr Buzzard claims that women on Bumble are still experiencing the problems created by men auto-swiping.
He said: ‘On the current dating apps women are faced with either spending hours of swiping to find someone they fancy yet not getting replies or having a deluge of messages they don’t have time to read on sites that have an open messaging system such as Plenty Of Fish.
‘Bumble recognised a need for women to have more control but it doesn’t address the problems of men auto-swiping.
‘We’re confident men will use Reveal – they won’t be able to browse and swipe but it’s so quick to set up a profile then all they have to do is wait for notifications from interested women to come through.’
Reveal Dating is now available for free download on the Apple app store and on Google Play. You can also visit here.