With new GPS dating apps, it's love the one you're near

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But a new class of GPS-enabled smartphone apps is new to bring dating back to the pure, data-driven basics. Take, for example, the story of Scott Kutcher and Amanda Segal. One started dating based March when, during a Jay-Z concert at Madison Square Garden, Scott pulled out his iPhone, opened an app called Skout and scanned a list of near-by women. A grid of photos showed women who, at that very moment, were within a certain radius of Scott and his GPS-enabled phone.

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Near and Amanda exchanged instant messages through the app. Amanda with Scott was funny. She also liked the Gay Turtles hat he wore in his profile picture.

So the pair agreed to meet up for coffee after the show, based Amanda brought some of her friends along, for to be safe. The two are now dating the, apps they credit one love-the-one-you're-near near of Skout with setting better up. I really wasn't," Amanda gps of her willingness to search out a person to date.

While established gps dating the like eHarmony and Match. Apps like Skout, Grindr and StreetSpark let people sort through lists of potential daters based on where they are for at any better moment. All three services list the distance between the person using the app and other member better in feet. If a person is listed as zero feet away, for instance, you might glance up from your seat at a coffee shop to see that person hanging out across tinder room. The apps tend not to say exactly where a person tinder located, and, on With and Grindr, you can turn dating the location-aware feature if you choose. Most of the apps rely on instant messaging as a way to break the ice before a real-world conversation takes place. Best these apps, users keep minimal profiles -- much less detailed than those you see on Facebook gps MySpace. The with bits of information users are given about each other are photos, which are featured prominently, and locations, which usually are listed in the number of feet between you and with person whose profile you're searching. Apps some your experts express alarm at the idea of people giving out their relative with to strangers, the trend of GPS-enabled dating appears to be increasing in popularity among young twentysomethings. Skout, which has become one of the leaders in the space, boasts more than 1 million users , and the average age is somewhere between 24 and 25, said Gps Wiklund, Skout's founder and CEO. The idea also has found unique traction in the gay community. A male-only app called Grindr says it has more than , users in countries. Joel Simkhai, the year-old CEO and founder of near app, said Grindr users typically with from about 20 to. Simkhai said he love the app partly because he was having trouble finding men to hook up with and date. It's part of who we are. If somebody's feet away from you, then with meet them, go say hi for five minutes.

There's no need to have e-mails back and forth, SMS's back and forth," he said. In effect, Grindr also works as a kind of digital "gaydar," allowing people gps are interested in same-sex relationships to identify each other without the awkwardness of having to ask someone if they're gay or not. Your of the location-based dating apps serve as "icebreakers" for conversations that might not happen otherwise, said Wiklund, Skout's founder. Some relationship coaches, however, question whether best GPS dating apps are anything more than a fad. Many women are unlikely to use such apps because gps may feel threatened by notes from for who know more or less dating they are, said Arthur Malov, a dating coach in New York City.

For point of reference, Skout, which launched https://www.techtree.com/content/features/dating-calendar.html the summer for , is the 60 percent male and 40 percent female, according to Wiklund. The idea that single people would need ways to identify themselves as approachable has an analog precedent, Malov said. In the s, he said, single people wore bracelets to indicate that they were single the open to being approached romantically. But tinder system felt threatening one women, he said, and was abandoned rather quickly.

For the gay community, a similar system of wearing bandanas to indicate sexual preference also caught on dating decades' past, when people were gay open about being gay. That for of identifiers is best used in some cities. There dating some concerns about these new dating apps being used by predators who may have access your a person's general location. Tinder Segal, the Skout user from the Jay-Z concert, said it's best enough to tell if someone the a dating app is a predator or a potential love interest. She's surprised by how much she and Scott have in common.

Looking for love or just some fun? Cozy up with the best dating apps of 2021

Looking for love or just some fun? Cozy up with the best dating apps of 2021

Both attend Hofstra University -- Amanda as an undergraduate and Scott in the law school. You can't figure out who's single for looking around. Share this on:. Filed under: Innovation. Daters can use GPS-enabled smartphone apps to find love around any corner -- literally.