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When designing Date.fm, we spent a lot of time weeding out bad ideas and planning for potential pitfalls.  What things might go wrong, and how can we prevent them?  We figured out what we wanted to do, and began planning to make sure our service could withstand misuse and abuse.  Even if an initial idea is great, it can be diluted by low-quality data or unnecessary complexity.  In this article we’re going to share some pieces of Date.fm that we think are key to making it a quality product.   

1. Users Must Have a Photo 

We’ve spoken to a lot of people who have used “big name” dating services, and we commonly heard that profiles without images were very undesirable.  We feel that requiring a user’s image is an important standard for Date.fm.

2. Face Detection Ensures Exactly One Face In Each User Photo

We’ve implemented new face detection software built into the iOS 5 SDK, which allows us to see if a user has actually taken a picture of a face for their profile image  (We don’t store face detection data, it’s just for validation purposes).  If no face is detected, we reject the image, and ask them to please take a clear picture of themselves.  If we detect more than one face in the image, we also reject it, and ask them to make sure they’re the only person in the picture.  So without ongoing human intervention, we’ve ensured a level of quality with all profile images.

3. Date.fm is iOS Only

We always wanted Date.fm to be an iOS app. But we also discussed building a separate web client, later deciding against it, at least for now. If we open up the app to anyone with a web browser, we feel that the bar is too low for potential troublemakers.  With an iOS-only app, we limit the app’s environment to iOS devices.  Simply taking the service off of the desktop significantly reduces the potential for scripted abuse.  

What about Android?  Well first, we’re iOS developers, and don’t currently have the in-house skill necessary to rapidly develop an Android client alongside the iOS client.  But additionally, we’re using several key iOS features that would need to be mirrored on other platforms before we’d expand to them.  We may entertain development on Android and Windows Phone platforms if iOS is successful enough to warrant the expansion.

4. Location Data Collected via GPS

Since Date.fm is iOS only, we use each device’s GPS location to generate a user’s city and state (which is the only information that is publicly shared).  Location data is required to create an account.  This prevents users from entering untruthful location information, and again increases the quality of user data for everyone.

5. iOS Environment & Match System Discourage Mass Messaging

Another iOS-only advantage is that it makes copy-and-paste mass messaging more difficult.  Copy and pasting the same chat message to many matches would be time consuming in iOS, and someone would only be able to send these messages to someone they like, who also likes them back.   Similarly, if you simply want to ‘like’  every person that appears in your results (and who knows, maybe you really do!), you’re still going to have to tap ‘like’ for each picture.  We hope these attributes will help increase the quality of user actions, and make them feel more genuine for the users receiving them.  

6. No Hyperlinks Allowed in Chat

Our chat doesn’t allow tappable hyperlinks, which eliminates common spamming where fake users send messages asking others to open a link.  An extra-gullible user who received a spam link would have to copy and paste the link out of the chat and into a browser (using the iOS copy and paste). And knowing how unlikely it is for users to do this, we think it will deter potential spammers from trying this trick in the first place.

7. Admin Tools and Flagging

We’ve also implemented an admin interface to review flagging, and automatically ‘hide’ users from the app if they’ve received a certain number of flags.  We can then review offenders and decide to ban them or not.  This is all pretty standard, but we definitely need a way to monitor and deal with inappropriate behavior.

8. Push Notifications Instead of Emails

Date.fm communicates with its users exclusively through push notifications to logged in devices.  We don’t send any emails, except when a password needs to be reset.  This keeps users instantly up-to-date when they want to be, and helps reduce clutter in the inbox.

In Conclusion

We think keeping Date.fm simple with quality user data will be key to its success.  With the choices listed above, we hope to encourage genuine human interactions and provide a great experience for all as our user base grows.  We hope you’ll give it a try and see for yourself.  Date.fm is available now for free in the App Store.  Download it now.  

If you have any thoughts or suggestions, we’d love to hear from you.  Email us at support@date.fm .