> I wonder if it'd be a turn-off though, if you spend 30 minutes to talk to ~10 people you don't find attractive. Maybe there should be a Tinder-esque selection process, so when you're online, you'll get offered other profiles which are also online, and if you both swipe right you'll get to a video-chat within seconds.
And here I was going to one up this - make it a three minute convo without video. If both people choose to continue, the video starts afterwards.
I think a not-insignificant number of people will find someone who was fun to talk to more attractive then they might at first glance. Might still be some misses, and the number of people who’d sign up is probably low, but I think you’d see more successful matches.
I think that would produce a lot of false positives, and therefore a lot of disappointment for physically unattractive people. Some people aren't particularly motivated to pick only 9s & 10s; most people accept people in their own range or higher; and sure, some people who are 6s end up happy with 2s. But "We're really hitting it off!" followed by "Um, oh, sorry, I just remembered I left a pot on the stove BYE" is much worse than just not getting any "likes" at all.
And here I was going to one up this - make it a three minute convo without video. If both people choose to continue, the video starts afterwards.
I think a not-insignificant number of people will find someone who was fun to talk to more attractive then they might at first glance. Might still be some misses, and the number of people who’d sign up is probably low, but I think you’d see more successful matches.