Can you put serendipity in a bottle?

Developers of the new Happn app believe it’s possible. Banking on the Tinderr dating app craze, Happn has created a very different approach (literally speaking).

Instead of anonymously swiping left or right, Happn connects users in the physical proximity of one another. It’s designed so that if a guy sees a girl and feels hesitant to approach, he can load up his app and see if she is a registered user. She’ll be alerted that a man nearby fancies her.

Further, the list of available matches refreshes as you pass other registered users on the grid. It’s kind of like geocaching, but for finding dates.

Why This Might Be Good

Happn is the first dating app that I’ve seen which encourages face to face meetings. In other words, social recluses won’t get much benefit from it. And, it could work as the ultimate ice breaker. A girl registered on the site is making herself available to be approached, and if you match with her then it will become extremely easy to say hello.

This could be a very powerful tool. The disadvantage of apps like Tinderr (which I find to be total wastes of time) is that it’s easy to be irrationally selective on the internet. In real life, we sometimes find ourselves attracted to people based on body language and a lot of other factors that we cannot express over the internet.

In any regular online dating system, these factors are thrown out the window, and overly entitled keyboard jockeys make sweeping generalizations about strangers based on superficial criteria (“her knees are too sharp”, “his hair is not dark enough”, etc).

Happn could at least force people to actually interact before making judgments.

What to Be Wary Of

The disadvantage to any dating app is the tendency for men to forego game in favor of shortcuts.

While I’m excited about Happn, I don’t see it as an alternative to game. If you do get lucky enough to meet a girl on the subway who is using the app, that’s awesome—but you still need to make a great first impression.

Another issue with the app is that it foregoes the traditional approach, which may be more effective. Women love the idea of serendipity and bumping into a person randomly. An encounter on Happn is not exactly random.

If a man is entirely dependent on a piece of software to always break the ice, he will not develop the skills of charisma, the gift of gab, and the ability to break the ice in a natural way.

Therefore, don’t rely on an app like this.

In a Nutshell

In the current climate of street harassment paranoia, these types of digital consent based approaches could be the next norm.

What I like about the concept is that it promotes that it’s OK to be approached. That women WANT to be approached, and are willing to register with an app that actually assists with it.

And, if a woman does not want to be approached anymore, she can simply delete her profile.

Hopefully, it could also encourage women to approach men in public, as well. This would be a major step in the right direction.

However, I can’t help but feel slightly hesitant about any sort of dating app system. While Happn is a great alternative to Tinderr, don’t become reliant on it.