The Snack app, launched during the pandemic, is aimed at “generation Z”, those born after 1997. It is presented as a mixture of Tinder and TikTok.
Should we expect a revolution in the landscape of dating applications? Tinder, the queen of the sector with 75 million monthly users worldwide, will it become obsolete? The Snack app is aimed at “Generation Z”, young people born after 1997, and to a few others from the previous generation, but you must not be over 36 to register.
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The application, which is not available in France at the moment, is presented as a mixture of Tinder and TikTok. Snack, in the language of this generation, means “cute” or “cute”, that someone pleases you. The creator, Kimberly Caplan, worked for the Canadian dating app Plenty of Fish – a reference to the many fish in the ocean. She had the idea for Snack when she discovered, in 2020, the profile of a young woman who used TikTok to find dates. For Kimberly Caplan, applications with photos are a thing of the past and everything must bet on video. No “swipe”, right or left to choose a profile you like. The “swiping” that Tinder has imposed for a decade is for old people, according to the application. Here, it’s a “feed”, like on Twitter: you click “like” when you come across a profile you like.
An avatar created using artificial intelligence
Snack has put in place a sanction of “ghosting”, that is to say this tendency to suddenly ignore a person with whom you have already exchanged or more. If you “ghost” too many people, your profile becomes invisible on the site, which makes it difficult to meet. But what caught the site’s attention Fast Company, it’s an avatar that can be trained to look as much like you as possible using artificial intelligence. He will chat virtually on your behalf with other users. If he finds that the person can please you, he warns you so that you take over, but, above all, you avoid uninteresting or fruitless conversations in the meantime. However, it must be ensured that the avatar is well formed. Eventually, he will also be able to represent you in the metaverse.
50% of young Americans have used a dating app
Between 2009 and 2017, the rate of couples met online increased from 22% to 39%. The Pew Research Center estimated in 2019 that 50% of young Americans between the ages of 18 and 29 have used a dating application. And the pandemic has accelerated the phenomenon.
Bumble, a competitor to Tinder, saw video calls jump 70% on its platform. Snack goes through video rather than photos with a short presentation, but Schmooze, which targets the same audience, offers an alternative to video. The app focuses on “memes”. She offers you a series. You swipe right or left over them, and those choices help the app determine what kind of humor appeals to you and then choose who to partner with.