New Australian dating app aims to end the swipe

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A new dating app developed by homegrown Melbourne app developers is looking to shake up the dating landscape as we know it.

The Out There app seeks to disrupt the dating app industry, leaving the world of face-value swiping behind and returning to embracing opportunities to connect with people in the real world.

With a soft launch in Melbourne in January 2022 and a nationwide launch scheduled for February, the subversive new dating app is set to be a valuable digital tool for singles who may be feeling hesitant about navigating a post-COVID dating world.

Out There's combination of location-based social opportunities and detailed personality and compatibility testing, allows the dating app to provide its users with higher quality dating experiences and significantly fewer chances of being 'ghosted'.

From bars and clubs on weekends to cafes, gyms and local park spaces, each location on the Out There map is scored based on your compatibility with other recorded app users in that area. Once you arrive at a location, you can turn on 'Broadcast mode' to see compatible users nearby who may be interested in meeting with you.

Co-founders Alexandra Cuthbert and Joe Russell break down exactly how they reimagined the whole mobile dating experience and brought the dating world right back to basics.

Both of Out There's co-founders can jointly agree that the dating app industry has been in need of reform for quite some time, especially considering that over 84 per cent of millennials would prefer to meet their future partner offline than on a superficial dating app.

"I missed the old-fashioned way of dating. The excitement of someone approaching you in-person and being able to instantly gauge the chemistry between you," says co-founder and Out There's chief marketing officer Alexandra.

For fellow co-founder and seasoned app developer Joe Russell, the whole construct of traditional dating apps never made sense from the get-go.

"I couldn't believe that over the last ten years, finding a compatible life partner had been reduced to a series of superficial swipes and bad dates,'' says Joe Russell.

The irrefutable benefit of dating apps is that they can organise these real-world meetings to a degree, but engaging in digital chats prior to meeting can also often take a lot of the wonder and excitement out of a first date experience. The issue for most single people, the app's founders expressed, is that they're uncertain about where to actually go to find these opportunities.

Out There maintains all the excitement of meeting new people by prompting app users to meet their compatible matches 'IRL' over trying to build a connection in a one-dimensional direct messaging bubble.

Out There's development team dreamt of a world where singles no longer have to wade through a plethora of face-value matches to find potential partners.

With Out There, users can finally engage with compatible potential partners in organic, real-world settings. This revolutionary dating app will likely equip singles with all the tools they'll need to start making lasting real-world connections.

But how does the app identify a user's compatible matches? Ensuring that matches maintain high compatibility ratings has been a compelling challenge for virtually all dating apps under the sun.

For Joe Russell - who's also credited with being the founder of award-winning Melbourne app development agency DreamWalk - solving problems with apps is almost second nature. With DreamWalk's eclectic collection of homegrown Aussie apps, Joe also recognises the value of enlisting industry experts when developing any innovative app.

Out There will help users find their perfect match based on the answers they provide when filling out a detailed personality questionnaire, created in partnership with Sydney-based dating coach, Jess Matthews from The Boy Detox.

Matthews' personality questionnaire considers compatibility based on a few essential factors, including an individual's values and beliefs, as well as personality or character traits that they find attractive.

Using Matthews' expert insights, Out There users can be rest assured that their dates will share similar values to their own, drastically reducing the likelihood of sitting through a bad date.

When researching the dating app industry in its current state, co-founder and Out There's chief marketing officer Alexandra Cuthbert, discovered that not too much has changed over years and years of using screens to enhance real-world dating experiences.

"Dating apps really haven't evolved since they first launched, and the overly curated and superficial swiping mechanism has become stale," says Alexandra.

Many dating app users have an on-again/off-again relationship with the apps themselves, routinely installing and uninstalling apps over the course of their time in the dating pool.

The frustration surrounding dissatisfying social interactions both within and around traditional dating apps has naturally made singles across the globe feel increasingly pessimistic about the nature of dating in the 21st century.

Ghosting and other forms of poor communication coupled with superficial connections presiding over all the other factors that lead to feelings of attraction have led to traditional dating apps creating a generally negative experience for singles looking to meet like-minded individuals.

Out There does away with all these negative, superficial conventions of traditional dating apps, moving interactions away from phone screens and into the real world, where nobody can leave you on 'read' for days at a time.

A lot of us Aussies are still reeling about the rapid digital transformation the COVID-19 lockdown brought our way. App developers have well and truly been working overtime over the past two years in order to provide us with digital alternatives to all the experiences we were deprived of in our many months of lockdowns.

Despite everything seemingly going digital nowadays, there are some serious questions surrounding whether or not every aspect of our lives is likely to be better off. One inarguable experience that even digital natives agree is better off staying firmly in the real world is dating.

Out There's co-founders recognised a startling need for a dating app that turns the traditional app-based dating experience right on its head. Co-founder Joe Russell is looking forward to seeing just what impact his new app will have for singles who are looking to get back 'Out There' post-COVID.

"Reimagining the whole mobile dating experience was quite a technical undertaking but I think the results speak for themselves."

Out There will be available for free download on the iTunes App Store and Google Play Store in January 2022.