The time when dating someone you met online felt strange is gone. These days, using a dating app solution to find your perfect love is entirely acceptable. As the demand for dating apps increases, the market appears to be swamped with plenty of dating apps of all kinds. However, most of them are similar to Tinder with no USP.
If you are planning to develop a dating app, you wouldn’t want your app to get lost in the ocean of the app store. So, we made a list of things you need to think about before you start the development process.
Important Things to Consider While Building Your Dating App Solution
1. Market Research
The most crucial choice you'll make during dating app development is deciding the target group of your potential consumers. It's important to have enough knowledge to tailor your app to that specific demographic. Also, this information will help you write and deliver a message that will get the attention of your target audience.
There are two aspects to every market research project to identify your target audience.
Demographics
This includes specific facts about your audience like age, gender, occupation, location, income level, etc.
Psychometrics
This is about the characteristics of your app's prospective user base. For this endeavor to be successful, you must identify the personalities of those individuals. To do that, you must have the answers to the following questions-
- What are the characteristics of the users as individuals?
- What personality characteristics do they share?
- What are their hobbies and interests?
- What are their views on online dating?
- What difficulties do they face during online dating?
Keep in mind that the questions are not limited to the ones mentioned above. You can add and remove them according to your requirements for building a dating app.
2. Analyze Competitors
Competitor analysis is another vital step toward making your app a success. It not only helps you determine what you should do but also defines what you shouldn’t do.
- Firstly, check your competitors’ websites and social media presence. Try to decipher what their strategy is and what works for them. You can even use online tools to find out their ranking on the app store.
- Next, go through their website and social media accounts to check their web presence and how they present their content. It might help you figure out your own strategy to deliver content and maintain a healthy social media presence.
- When you are analyzing different dating app development solutions, try to gauge their USP and what ticks for them. Accordingly, you can determine what your USP could be. You will understand how you can make your app stand out from the rest.
3. Basic Features
There are some basic features that you must add to your app, even if you launch a free version initially. That will give your users an idea of what is about to happen. More than that, they will expect these features to be a part of your app since your competitors will also have them. Not offering them may damage your brand's image.
Algorithm
This is the most popular and most liked feature of any dating app. Therefore, you must hire dating app developers who will not go wrong with this. The algorithm will use the data that users fill in at the beginning and their activities to match them with the most compatible person. If you keep improving this feature, your users will hardly give your competitors a second look.
Security
There are a lot of people on dating apps that ruin the experience for everyone. It is your responsibility as the app owner to weed out these people and make your genuine users feel safe. Also, in case someone has an unpleasant experience, you must have practices in place that will quickly address and resolve it.
User Experience
Lastly, one of the most important things that will make or break your app is the user experience. If users find your app easy to navigate and use, you can be sure of gaining a lot of traction. An intuitive user interface plays an extremely important role in this. Expert dating app developers will be able to help you with this. You should also keep in mind that developing a complex UI and UX will increase your costs. So it is better to go slow and make changes as your app grows.
4. Monetization Method
The final goal of your app is to generate revenue for you. You may be prompted to offer a paid version to your users immediately, but we would advise against that. Directly offering a paid version might turn off your users. However, you may be wondering how you will earn money with a free version. Or will you have to burn through your budget until you launch a premium version?
There is good news for you! You can earn money through your app, even if it is free.
Advertising
As the user base of your app increases, other brands may show interest in placing their ads in your app. You can charge a fee for it or get paid every time a user clicks on your ad.
In-App Purchases
You can also offer some virtual gifts or delivery services to your users for a small fee. People who are dating often send gifts to each other. If they get an option to do that through the use of dating apps, they will be highly pleased. It will also result in increased revenue for you.
5. Choosing a Dating App Development Company
After you are done finalizing the details of your app, it will be time to delve deep into the technical part. You can hire a dating app development company that specializes in making similar apps. They will not only have the expertise but also the experience of being in this industry for years.
There are certain things that you must discuss with them before commencing the development process-
Development Platform
You need to decide if you want to make the app for Android, iOS, or both. Accordingly, the tech team will proceed with the development process. If you are confused about it, they can help you decide.
Tech Stack
This is the tricky part and is best left to the experts. Although having knowledge about different languages and frameworks will help you have a fruitful discussion with the developer team. They can suggest the best tech stack for your project that will facilitate the development process. Therefore, you must choose a package in which a holistic tech stack is part of the dating app development services.
Budget
Your budget will depend on a lot of aspects. That includes features, the development platform, the tech stack, the hiring model, etc. You need to choose these factors carefully and search for a company that will give you a fair deal.
In Conclusion
The above points are essential to keep in mind while making a dating app. If you carefully follow each step, the chances of your success will increase considerably. We also mentioned how having a capable tech partner is important for the development process.
Narola Infotech is a dating app development company that can help you in every step of this journey. We understand how important and close this project is to you, and our developers will leave no stone unturned to help you. Feel free to contact us at any time to discuss the requirements of your project.