Category: Snack

Podcast: Dating App Snack Uses AI Avatars to Flirt for Users

Posted on May 4, 2023

SnackKCRW – Dating app Snack has released a new feature to help people cut through the small talk – by using an AI-generated avatar that has conversations on behalf of its users. Los Angeles Times Reporter Jamie Ding tried it out, and found that bot-on-bot romance still has its limitations.

See full article at KCRW

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Snack App’s AI Chatbots Offer New Way to Navigate Online Dating

Posted on April 26, 2023

Snack logo for social mediaLOS ANGELES TIMES – The dating app Snack introduces AI chatbots to help users navigate the initial stages of online dating. Users train their chatbot avatars to answer questions and engage in conversation on their behalf. Snack's CEO, Kim Kaplan, believes this approach can reduce the stress and time spent on back-and-forth messaging. The article highlights some issues with the AI implementation, such as bots making plans without the user's knowledge. While some experts see potential in AI chatbots for improving dating app experiences, others question their ability to accurately represent users and foster authentic connections.

by Jaimie Ding
See full article at Los Angeles Times

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Dating App Snack Sends AI Avatars on Virtual Dates

Posted on March 10, 2023

Snack avatarFAST COMPANY – Snack, a dating app designed for Gen Z, has introduced a new feature that allows users to create AI-trained avatars of themselves to go on virtual dates and chat with other users. The AI avatar will report to the user if it thinks there could be a match and users can then start a real human-to-human conversation.

by Michael Grothaus
See full article at Fast Company

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Gen Z Dating App “Snack” Keeps out Users 35+, Age Bias Suit Says

Posted on October 19, 2022

Snack logo for social mediaLAW360 – A Southern California man filed a proposed class action against Snack, which touts itself as "not your parent's dating app," saying he was blocked from joining because he is over 35. Snack is a video dating app specially made for Gen Z. Instead of swiping profile photos, the app shows a user's real personality through videos.

by Bonnie Eslinger
See full article at Law360

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Inner Circle Adds a Suite of Anti-ghosting Features

Posted on September 30, 2022

Inner Circle anti ghostingTECH CRUNCH – Inner Circle, a global dating app, is trying to put a stop to the hurtful online dating experience where people cut off contact with another person without any warning or explanation. Inner Circle dubbed this new group of features "The Date Conscious Suite." The new toolset includes things like anti-ghosting reminders, end conversation options, closure messages, pinned conversations, and decision prompts. Match Group announced a feature in 2021 that nudges users suspected of ghosting so the user can unmatch or send a message that they're not interested. Also, Hinge has a "Your Turn" feature that reminds users when it's their turn to respond. The video-first dating app, Snack, has an anti-ghosting feature that reports users that ghost too frequently. The more someone ghosts, the less a user's profile gets seen. There's even an anti-ghosting dating app called Elate, specifically designed with features that help prevent ghosting.

by Lauren Forristal
See full article at Tech Crunch

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As Tech Tries to Hack Love, Is It Killing It Instead?

Posted on March 23, 2022

Dating algorithmsSINGULARITY HUB – Finding love is hard, and for the past decade or two, technology has been trying to help. Many of the algorithms used on dating apps aim to personalize users' experiences, learning what type of people they like or what qualities they're looking for. In a panel discussion titled Optimized Romance: Is Tech Killing the Mood? at South by Southwest last week, culture journalist Cecelia Girr, Snack App founder Kim Kaplan, NASA systems engineer Rashied Amini, and psychotherapist Babita Spinelli shared their thoughts on how technology has helped and simultaneously harmed our romantic lives, and what the future might hold for dating tech. "Romance was once about mystery and excitement and this inexplicable magic, but increasingly we're seeing it defined by data and DNA and science," said Girr. "No algorithm will ever really be able to identify "the one" for us. "You're not two people in the universe alone, you're living in a dynamic world," said Rashied Amini. What algorithms can do, in Amini's opinion, is help people improve their self-knowledge and identify relationship patterns that may emerge. Kim Kaplan started Snack App, which uses a Tiktok-like model where users upload videos showing their personalities and interests. "Our goal is to create an extra barrier that forces looky-lous out and lets people showcase themselves," Kaplan said.

by Vanessa Bates Ramirez
See full article at Singulatity Hub

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Gen Z Is Ready to Break up With Tinder

Posted on February 11, 2022

Schmooze logo 2021LOS ANGELES TIMES – Heterosexual couples in the U.S. are now more likely to meet a romantic partner online than via any other mode of connection. And during the pandemic, online dating reached new heights. On Snack, users upload TikTok-style videos instead of photos. The company is focusing on on-the-ground promotion at college campuses and currently has the most users in California, Texas, Florida and New York. Schmooze, another dating app wooing Gen Z, is also organized around a form of digital content. Instead of people's profiles, users are greeted with a meme set against a colorful, cartoon-like backdrop, with the choice to swipe right for "like" and left for "don't like." Dating app called Iris is taking the opposite approach. Returning to the fundamentals of physical attraction, the app, which was launched in early 2020, has users train a machine-learning algorithm by swiping through three rounds of stock photos. It then recommends potential matches.

by Jaimie Ding
See full article at Los Angeles Times

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Ghosting on Dating App Snack Will Make Users Invisible

Posted on January 20, 2022

Snack logoFAST COMPANY – Snack, a video-centric service that pitches itself as TikTok meets Tinder, says people who ghost too frequently will become less visible on its platform. Users who ghost other users too frequently can be reported for doing so, Snack says, and if the behavior keeps up, the visibility of their profile will be reduced over time. Snack launched early last year with $3.5M in pre-seed investment led by Kindred Ventures and Coelius Capital. The Vancouver-based company was founded by Kimberly Kaplan, a dating-app veteran and former executive at Plenty of Fish, now owned by Match Group.

by Christopher Zara
See full article at Fast Company

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Video Dating App Snack Targets Gen Z

Posted on December 23, 2021

Snack logoMEDIA POST – Snack, the video-only dating app (think TikTok meets Tinder) soft-launched six months ago with $5M in seed money. Founder Kim Kaplan was one of the original employees of Plenty of Fish. Snack is one of the top 10 most downloaded dating apps in the US and the app currently averages 2.5M video views per month.

by Tanya Gazdik
See full article at Media Post

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Investors See Big Potential in Smaller Online Dating Companies

Posted on September 14, 2021

Top 20 dating apps USWALL STREET JOURNAL – Since Jan '19, App Annie data show U.S. users have spent 7.4M hours on dating apps a month on Android phones alone. Match Group and Bumble collectively boast ~$50B in fully diluted market value, but plenty of businesses are trying. Coffee Meets Bagel, which hits users with algorithmically curated matches every day at noon, has made ~130M matches since its launch in 2012. Hily, which works to make it easier to start conversations, has 22M users. Snack, which is focused on video-first dating, was the 10th most-downloaded dating app in the U.S. last month, according to App Annie. Some just need a larger platform to help them take off. Hinge, in which Match took a majority stake in 2018 before acquiring it in 2019, saw ~100K U.S. downloads in Jan '18. By Mar '21, it was closer to 600K. Berlin-based Spark Networks did $233M in revenue last year. And then there is eHarmony owner ParshipMeet, which is preparing for a 2022 IPO. In the Q2 it had €139M ($164.2M) in revenue.

by Laura Forman
See full article at Wall Street Journal