The Future of Dating is Video – Here’s How to Prepare
This article is brought to you by Stream’s Content Partnership with Global Dating Insights. Stream helps apps like Feeld, Paired, Trueflutter, and Wink build best-in-class Chat and Activity Feed experiences to help spark meaningful conversations.
A picture may be worth a thousand words, but a video call could be the start of a love story. Increasingly, dating apps are adopting video elements to add another dimension to the matching experience. Here’s how to keep up with this trend.
The Benefits of Video Chat
Enabling video chat features for dating can bring several benefits that simply aren’t possible in traditional text-based conversations
Firstly, video chats can dispel a user’s concerns about being catfished. Pew Research found that 50% of daters believe fake accounts set up to scam people are very common on dating platforms
But, with video chat features a two-minute conversation could establish that the person behind the profile is who they say they are. Singles can then focus on the important thing, finding chemistry, rather than worrying about inauthentic profiles.
Secondly, not every dater wants to take things offline immediately. Having a few conversations virtually can be a nice middle-ground between text-only conversations and meeting in person, helping shy singles come out of their shell before the first date while protecting personal contact details like phone number, location, and email address.
Thirdly, video chats can connect two people who may face challenges to meet. Whether it be large distances keeping them apart or mismatched schedules, video calling can provide an immediate way for singles to look each other in the eye and connect.
Key Features to Consider
When building a video chat app for dating, product teams can consider features to further enhance the user experience. For example, developers should consider whether they need group call functionality. This may be useful in social discovery or ethical polyamorous platforms
Furthermore, fun masks or filters in the video element can bring joy to the video chat tool. Platforms such as Snapchat and TikTok have enabled users to be creative in the content they produce, thanks to constantly evolving video filters.
Trust & Safety is the final and most important feature to consider. Dating app developers should think about how to support users if they are the victim of inappropriate behavior and how to prevent bad actors from causing further harm
Making Video Chat Possible
Creating video chat functionality is not without its challenges. It requires complex infrastructure with sufficient server capacity and bandwidth to scale alongside the user base. Furthermore, the development journey could take months or years, impacting the app’s competitiveness.
That’s why many app developers are now looking to adopt ready-made video chat APIs & SDKs that can be conveniently added to Android and iOS apps.
These ready-made solutions are often more cost-effective than building a video chat tool from scratch, as they often include infrastructure hosting costs, for example. Additionally, they can be faster and easier to integrate into a dating app platform.
APIs and SDKs in this space will also include in-built security measures, including end-to-end encryption. This gives users greater peace of mind over their privacy and developers one less thing to worry about.
Conclusion
Dating apps with video chat capabilities have an edge over competitors. With added authenticity, connectivity, and fun, there’s no reason why a feature we see globally in telemedicine and virtual offices can’t also add value to dating.
Stream is supporting app developers as they build socially connected and engaging platforms and serve users in innovative ways. Get in touch with our team to learn more.
