There have been so many Tinder knockoffs that Product Hunt has a special list of the most notable ones (‘Tinder for X’). We’ve written about two different companies trying to be ‘Tinder for Music’ in the past six months.
In the world of dating apps, where Tinder has swiped away its rivals, developers are really having to stretch for new ideas. The latest one to land on my iPhone home screen is Align, an app that finds matches based on astrology.
Helen Grossman, one of the company’s co-founders, told TNW:
We find the ‘do you’ aspect of astrology really inspiring, as it has allowed us to embrace aspects of ourselves and to understand that people are the way they are, and that we can’t change that.
Whether or not the astrology applies – which we argue it does, duh – it allows for a more open and tolerant relationship to develop.
Astrology is fun, it’s forgiving, it doesn’t make you feel bad for having certain traits of characteristics that make you who you are.
I once had a conversation with a friend who explained that she used an astrological lens to examine her ex-boyfriends, it helped her realize that the failure of those past relationships did not necessarily speak to some intrinsic problem with her, as she had always felt, but rather that she was dating all these Capricorns!
Can you detect that Align is an LA-based startup from that?
As a cynical man, Align instantly irritated me with its compatibility reports burbling on about how “Leos are all heart and Aquarians are all brain.”
I was invited to try the app early and encouraged to enter 90210 as my zip code – there’s a nice 90s flashback moment – to ensure I got some matches. All of the women who appear in my ‘galaxy’ seem to work for the startup!
The developers deserve some credit for the look of the app, which is very pleasing to use with its star-filled parallax effect backgrounds. The ability to describe yourself by choosing from a selection of words and emoji will divide opinion. What does ? or ? actually say about your personality?
Right now the service is limited to LA, so if you are itching for some astrological dating, you might have to fake your location or just wait for it to expand before you waffle on about your moon sign.
Ultimately, the app’s success will rest on how many people buy into astrology as a tool for meeting a potential partner. Stereotyping leads me to suspect this could be one dating app that actually lures in more women than men.
But then, I’m an Aquarius, so I would say that, right?
➤ Align [iOS]
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