When you’re in the thick of seeking love on dating apps, it’s easy to feel like you’re all alone in the process. You’re spending more time than you would like browsing profiles of potential matches and going on entirely mediocre first dates, and you’re tired of having to nod along with your friends and family member’s opinions about your love life when they really have no idea what you’re experiencing. You’re a solo love warrior, setting off into the world with no one to count on but yourself.
Thanks to a recently launched app from Match and the founders of Betches Media, though, that can all change. With Ship, your loved ones can get in the trenches with you, helping guide your journey through the world of dating apps in the moment so you don’t have to rehash your thought process with them after the fact… when it might already be too late to connect with — or steer clear of — a potential date.
“Many times, your friends and family know you better than you know yourself, and having the functionality of being able to chat directly in Ship about the matches your crew swiped for you makes the whole dating app experience much more fun and social,” Betches co-founders Aleen Kuperman, Samantha Fishbein, and Jordana Abraham say of the theory behind their app.
Childhood friends themselves, the Betches team knows firsthand how critical the feedback of your BFFs and family members can be when you’re in search of that special someone. And as they heard more stories over the years of dating app set-ups gone wrong, they decided there had to be a way to help make the digital matchmaking experience feel more like what happens off the screen, particularly when you meet a potential love interest while you’re hanging out with friends. Ship was born from this idea, with the help of Match Group CEO Mandy Ginsberg.
“We collaborated on an app that would be structured similar to the IRL dating experience — social, fun, and involving your friends — to solve for a piece we felt was missing in the dating market,” the founders tell us.
Here’s how it works: Like on any other dating app, you start by building a profile on Ship. But that’s when you get to shake things up. Instead of immediately moving on to the part of the process where you start scrolling through potential matches, you can invite friends to help you out within the app as part of your “crew.”
Your crew is then looped into a Ship group chat, in which you can share matches, talk about profiles, and, of course, search for promising singles. If the thought that your BFF could go ahead and start chatting with someone on your behalf — and without your permission — totally freaks you out, don’t sweat it. Only the person with the profile (AKA you) can engage in direct communication with other singles.
Generally, the idea is that looking for love on an app no longer needs to be lonely… and that you shouldn’t have to obsessively screenshot profiles and conversations from your app of choice so that your friends can weigh in.
“We hope that Ship will make dating fun again and remove the pressure and anxiety stigma that is typically associated with dating apps,” the Betches co-founders say. “We understand the importance of leaning on your friends in everything and especially in dating, and that’s why we built Ship. By bringing your friends into the dating app experience so they’re right alongside you as you swipe, we believe [it] will make dating apps a more rewarding and fun experience.”
Would you trust your friends and family to manage your dating app swiping on your behalf? Tweet us @BritandCo.
(Photo via Getty; Graphics via Ship/Betches Media)
