‘Avataars’ and audio: How the SwoonMe app is approaching online dating differently

A profile picture is the strongest weapon in the dating world online. The right profile picture or selfie ensures the most likes and matches on dating apps. But SwoonMe—an app that started in July 2021—is focusing on something else: ‘Avataars’ and audio.
Tanvi Gupta, SwoonMe’s co-founder and former Meta employee, said the aim is to build “a platform where users can connect, with ‘Avataars’ being their primary medium of identity.” “Social media is heavily indexed on how one looks, not on personality or interest. And this is especially challenging for women and minorities, who end up feeling very judged. SwoonMe is changing this…” Gupta told over a video call, adding that while dating in virtual reality was still some time away, dating in augmented reality was possible, and this is what her app hopes to achieve.
Like any other dating app, SwoonMe lets users create a profile. But it relies on an ‘Avataar’ or a cartoon version of the user’s face, based on a real selfie or photo, instead of actually showing a real photo. The app asks for verification when someone generates their ‘Avataar’. The user is then asked to upload and post another photo in a certain pose so that the app can match it with the selfie used to generate the ‘Avataar’. According to Gupta, this is a safety check to verify the user’s identity.
SwoonMe is currently using a third-party technology to create these ‘Avataars’, and plans to expand the feature soon.
SwoonMe’s icebreaker questions where users can record their audio responses to some select questions. (Image source: Shruti Dhapola/Indian Express)
Once the profile is created, the app will guide a user with prompts on how to record an audio introduction, so they can find their match or connect with others on the platform. This audio snippet or description is another critical part of the profile on SwoonMe app. “Voice tells a lot about the person, so there’s an additional element to these ‘Avataars’, which are animated with voice. We do get users to move into one-on-one chats and help them play like icebreaker games to connect further. We recommend the questions in these games based on interests,” noted Gupta.
Interestingly, SwoonMe does not let users chat or ‘text message’ each other even once they have matched, which is unlike most other dating apps. Two users must have sent a certain number of ‘audio’ messages before the text chat option opens. Even then, they cannot send photos or other attachments via chat even after the feature becomes available. They can, however, choose to reveal their real photo to their interest after some time, and if they are comfortable with doing so.

Gupta added users can also leave a voicemail for anyone on the app, and that there is no matching required to do this. “If I like what one has to say, and I can quickly leave a voicemail, this is sort of old-school when people actually left voicemails and lened to them,” she said.
Tanvi Gupta, the founder of SwoonMe app.
Launched in India in January this year, the app already has 25,000 monthly active users. And this is one market where Gupta sees a lot of potential. The app claims to have an engagement time in India of about 20 minutes per day per user, and in the US, it is about 40 minutes—though the company has not revealed the exact daily user base.
Gupta is also more confident that due to India’s younger population, revenue for dating apps such as hers will only grow. This is also where the ‘Avataar’ bit becomes more critical, and Gupta said she has already seen this indication during her tenure at Meta. “What we saw in our early beta testing for SwoonMe is that users spend so much time customising their ‘Avataars’. Gen Z will send a lot more money on these ‘Avataars’. People are buying these digital goods online to dress up their ‘Avataars’, just as they would in real life, and spending just as much money. We see that in data like people spend on average seven, like six to seven minutes customising their ‘Avataar’,” she pointed out.

This ‘Avataar’ aspect is what SwoonMe also intends to build on. It plans to add ‘Avataar’ based video calling to the platform soon, where the avatar in the video call mimics a user’s facial expressions, hand gestures, lip movements, etc. It also plans to add more ‘Avataar’ based games to help people connect further.
But the way Gupta sees it, the plan is to make these ‘Avataars’ more immersive, especially for smartphone users. The company is also working on this, though she refused to divulge more details on future partnerships. “We want to make this experience more immersive, which means the ‘Avataars’ will be more animated. On the profile, there will be an ‘Avataar’ introducing the person in their own voice. Sort of like what you would see in the metaverse, but on a smartphone screen,” she explained.
The app also has a trending tab where the top-performing sound tes or audio snippets can be heard. These are the ones which are getting the most likes but the likes are not publicly available. “We surface those top trending sound bites in your area, so you can get to know other people who have recorded cool intros…,” said Gupta.
When asked about safety features, she said the app allows users to report a profile, block and ignore users, etc, and also report them. “We have AI that actually looks at the quality of the sound tes and assigns a score on the back end. If there are certain words caught an AI, the content is reviewed a content moderator, and then it is taken off the platform if it doesn’t meet our communities or our guidelines.”