Meet Willow, the Dating App That Won’t Judge You By The Appearance

T listed here are a complete large amount of apps available on the market now for young people looking for love: Tinder, Bumble, and OkCupid, to mention a few. Though their rationales vary—Tinder and Bumble are both concerning the swipe, but on Bumble, women result in the very first move, along with OkCupid it is possible to get a grip on simply how much information you reveal up front—they all have one or more part of typical: Possible mates judge the other person based on appearance.

But Willow, an innovative new application striking the App shop on Wednesday, is looking for a various approach. As opposed to swiping left or right in line with the first selfie the truth is, you’re prompted to respond to a couple of three questions—written by users—that are created to spark a conversation up. What’s more, users decide when and in case they would like to share photos along with other users; to start with, the answers to these concerns are typical dates that are future.

The app’s creator Michael Bruch claims Willow places the “social” back social media marketing. Bruch, now 24, had been fresh away from nyc University as he established the software year that is last. He claims he had been seeking to fill a void he noticed when making use of dating apps that centered on swipes as opposed to everything you like.

“You can match with a number of individuals which you think are great searching you don’t really understand much about them until such time you begin speaking with them, ” Bruch informs TIME. “If I’m going to pay time with someone i do want to understand me. That individuals have actually one thing to talk about–that’s what’s crucial to”

Bruch is hoping that same curiosity about discussion is essential to many other young adults also. Up to now, Willow has gained some traction. A day over 100,000 users downloaded the beta version of the app that launched in August, sending an average of three messages.

What’s more, individuals are deploying it for longer than simply finding love. “It’s be a little more about social development than strictly dating, ” Bruch says. “If you want to access it an have a laid-back discussion about game titles you are able to, and you will additionally make use of it to spark up an intimate discussion with some body that is significantly less than 30 kilometers away. ”

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The form of the application released Wednesday also contains a “Discover” feature that will help users search what’s trending and better examine concerns they’d be enthusiastic about responding to.

It’s an appealing approach provided the perceived shallow nature of today’s millennials—the Me Generation, as TIME’s Joel Stein pronounced in 2013. Today’s dating apps appear to feed within their narcissists that are inner. And it also’s much easier to make some body down based on simply their face as opposed to when you’ve started up a discussion. To observe how users reacted to profiles without pictures, OkCupid among the biggest online dating sites, hid profile pictures temporarily in January of 2013 dubbing it “Blind Date time. ” They unearthed that their users had been more likely to answer very first communications during the period, however the moment the pictures had been turned right back on, conversations ended–like they’d “turned in the bright lights during the club at midnight, ” wrote one Chris Rudder, among the site’s founders.

Some millennials are finding that the pressure of putting your face out there for the public to judge can be intimidating—and in some instances, dangerous despite that somewhat depressing result. Just one single glimpse in the jerky messages published to your Instagram account Bye Felipe (which aggregates negative communications ladies have online) provides a great feeling of just just how annoying it could be for many individuals, but specially for females, wanting to navigate for the reason that space that is visual. Individuals may be aggressive, fetishizing, and downright cruel.

Apps like Bumble seek to assist females circumvent that by placing the charged power of striking up conversation in entirely inside their fingers. But Willow would like to entirely change the focus, through the method some body appears as to the his / her passions are. “If your photo is certainly not being blasted available to you, the actual quantity of harassment and communications you’re gonna get the break off will probably be reduced, ” Bruch claims.

On its area, the app’s mission sounds just like a cheesy line from the rom-com: a hapless sap whining that they desire somebody would simply take desire for their ideas rather than their appearance. But, Bruch and Willow’s other founders are hoping it offers carved a spot one of the wide variety apps that focus on the millennial generation’s life online.