With the Apple Watch on its way, more and more interesting apps are launching for our wrists. One of the more innovative ones that has caught our attention is WatchMe88, a dating application developed by a team of Singapore-based entrepreneurs.
No, WatchMe88 isn’t the new Tinder — there’s no swiping right involved. Instead, the app promises to elegantly indicate your status as ‘single and interested’ through a glow on the watch’s interface. If you’d prefer not to broadcast your availability to all and sundry, the app also accommodates that: the ‘invisible’ mode will hide the glow on your watch until you’re 10cm away from another user who’s also available.
Even better: the app comes with a map indicating how many ‘available’ users are in a certain location. This works depending on your pre-set dating preferences, making your search for a partner that much more effective. And once you’ve spotted someone interesting in real life, you can subtly make the first move by sending a ‘wink’ or message on your watch.
The team has created a handy infographic to illustrate the process:
In an interview with The Daily Dot, co-founder of WatchMe88, Yoav Elgrichi, revealed that his startup received funding from the Singapore government. And it’s not hard to see why the app has sparked interest so far; it’s an ingenious way of bridging the boundary between the online and offline spheres, which dating apps like Tinder often cannot reconcile.
The aim of their startup, according to the WatchMe team, is to “create a new way of communication between people, by harnessing the capabilities of smartwatches”. While you might balk at the thought of wearing an ‘interested’ indicator on your wrist like a neon sign, the concept itself is actually rather sophisticated. Say you’re 10cm away from someone on the train back home, and you notice your watch glowing — WatchMe88 can be the wingman that helps you strike up a conversation in real life. What’s most impressive about the app is that it manages to integrate our everyday life with our dating search seamlessly.
Currently, WatchMe88 is available for iPhone. The Apple Watch app is set to roll out today, with the concurrent launch of the Apple Watch.
