What if I told you there's a new player in the online dating game that is set apart from all the current ones that look, feel and act the same, are you intrigued?
What if I told you this app views 'looks' as secondary and places more attention on a personal voice interaction, as opposed to text, would you bite?
This means you can no longer send (or receive) copied and pasted complex, multi-syllable words in text form to the person you're chatting up. You actually have to use your words and your voice to articulate what you're saying, similar to having a real conversation. Remember, those days?
More importantly, this takes away the ability to send (or receive) random, unsolicited d*ck pics -- for this reason alone, it's worth downloading the app.
They call it Unveil.
When I first heard of the app, I immediately thought of the movie Her. In case you forgot the plot, let me refresh your memory; it's the story where Joaquin Phoenix falls in the love with the sexy voice of Scarlett Johansson.
The voice character of Scarlett is more of a sophisticated version of Siri built into Joaquin's advanced computer operating system. Joaquin goes through all the emotions that one would feel when dating someone in real life, but he's not. As the plot thickens, you almost forget he's dating his computer.
Unveil has a similar vibe, meaning you connect with someone's voice, however at no point will a cyborg greet you at your door, like in the film, at least I hope not.
For me personally, voices have always been an important part of the attraction, maybe even more than looks but definitely less than personality.
Verbal communication gives you an insight into one's personality and confidence level. It shows you how well he/she can string a proper sentence together and what sort of vocabulary he/she uses to express themselves. Plus, hearing the tone and inflections in a voice help make messages much clearer, whereas with text, messages can easily be misinterpreted and tell a different story than you hoped for.
Text messages now outrank phone calls as the dominant form of communication among Millennials... Still, the rise of texting is not without its critics. Messages are so condensed that they often fail to convey the sender's intended meaning and tone, causing misunderstandings -- and that's not even factoring in the confusion of "autocorrect fails." -- Business Insider.
What happened to getting personal and picking up the phone to have a conversation? We involuntarily stepped into this fast paced world of convenient, cold texting.
When you first start talking to someone, you want to come off as genuine, articulate and real. Text makes it easy to be the opposite of all those things. And sadly, half of the people on online dating sites take advantage of coming off as being "smooth talkers" or giving off a false sense of connection. It's frustrating for both genders.
"Especially in new relationships, it is essential that you maximize the opportunities to not only build that intimacy, but also to avoid any situations that might prohibit it." -- Tyler Turk, CEO of Crated With Love.
Ultimately, words on a page can only tell you so much. And honestly, it's just nice to have a personal voice interaction once in a while.
I think that's why I like the concept of Unveil, you're connecting with a human voice first, rather than a static photo.
How it works:
1) Browse through voice introductions
2) To connect, send a voice message to who you're interested in
3) When you have a long enough conversation with someone, both of your pictures will gradually get unveiled.
In this situation, both parties are forced to put in a little effort, which hopefully will also cut down the spamming factor that takes place with other online dating apps.
We're moving in an era of personalized engagement, which is why this app works with the way that content and connections are being made these days.
What comes after voice message dating? I really hope we take it back to the 90's, where we had real conversations on the phone. Better yet, an even more ridiculous idea is taking it back to before mobiles phones were around ...are you ready for it ...it's pretty crazy ...how about having straight up face to face interactions first, followed by human to human phone conversations, and if all goes well, a texting relationship materializes. I know, this idea is completely absurd!
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