How Pures 24-hour chat timer forces daters to skip the endless banter
How introducing a sense of urgency into its chat mechanic made Pure a better dating app.
One major frustration with online dating is the tendency for matches to become pen pal situations rather than progressing to real-life dates. While initial flirty conversations can be enjoyable, many users avoid online dating solely for the purpose of endless texting. However, dating app Pure has devised clever solutions to this issue and, in tests, these methods proved successful.
Here's how Pure introduced a sense of urgency into its dating mechanics and how that aids users in transforming matches into real-life encounters.
Pure's unique approach to dating profiles differs significantly from other platforms. Rather than offering permanent, public-facing profiles, Pure users share temporary personal advertisements, or "ads," that broadcast who they are or what they desire, be it a long-term relationship or a casual connection. Discoverability only occurs when a user posts an ad, and the visible profile details include age, gender, sexual orientation, and photos.
Once an ad expires, so too does access to the associated profile. This mechanic creates a sense of urgency, as users recognize the potential for a fleeting connection, making them more inclined to act quickly.
In addition to the ad-based system, Pure incorporates a disappearing chat mechanic to further enhance the urgency. As soon as you begin a chat on Pure, an artificial time constraint comes into play, with each chat automatically self-deleting after 24 hours, unless both parties mutually decide to suspend the chat timer. Although this rule might seem like an arbitrary limitation, it proves beneficial in practice by preventing endless banter.
When interacting with someone in person, you must be concise, expressing interest promptly. However, on an app where there's no urgency, users can drag out communication, engaging in trivial questions rather than addressing the core issue: establishing a connection.
Pure's disappearing chat mechanic is ingeniously designed, even if both parties choose to disable it, as it still compels a mutual acknowledgment of the connection. Furthermore, from our personal experience using the app over an extended period, Pure's culture strongly encourages in-person interactions over endless chatting or swiping.
Written by urgent.news from Mashable's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
