Matchmaking is the process of matching 2 people together with the purpose of helping them build a relationship that might evolve into a marriage. This “art” (that’s right, art as it requires good character recognition skills) is quite old I’d say, as if you consider the religious aspect the first matchmaker was God himself – granted, the matchmaking in that case was a bit painful for Adam (Eve was created from one of his ribs).

Back to a more serious note, matchmaking has its roots in classical mythology as that’s when the legend of Cupid was created, going back as far as 700 BC. That Latin flying-baby-arrow-shooter was the offspring of Venus (love-goddess) and Mars (war God) and its symbol is frequently used in matchmaking scenarios. In the end, no matter the symbol, matchmaking is all about finding the perfect (or close to that) match.

Nowadays, in hyper-socialization times, there are numerous ways to try and find that ONE. Let’s consider Tinder, a dating app that supposedly helps you find your next date by showing on your phone photos of people you should consider and you swipe left/right to decide if you like them or not. Think about that for a minute, an algorithm decided that you can be a match based on what you wrote on your Tinder profile, and you decide just by looking at the photo if you should go further or not. That’s a bit shallow in my opinion, and not without consequences.

Below are 2 official divorce rates for 2 different countries:

  • 50+% divorce rate, as in 1 in 2 marriages end up in divorce
  • 1.1 – 5% divorce rate, as in a maximum of 1 in 20 marriages ends up in divorce.

Which divorce rate do you think is the one for United States and which one for India? You guessed right, the abysmal one is for US and the incredibly low one is for India. But why is there such a big difference? Well, in India a very high percentage of marriages are actually based on matchmaking, meaning those 2 people are introduced by a 3rd party (usually family). Even if by Western standards matchmaking could be considered archaic, it’s far more successful if you ask me. Sure, maybe partially cultural/religious reasons contribute to the low divorce rate too, but even if you triple, quadruple or quintuple (I’m out of multipliers) that rate you still are well below half of what the one in US is.

So yes, matchmaking isn’t popular in the US, at least not yet, but there’s a new app in town that’s making rounds: Spritzr.

The App

Spritzr is a mobile app that allows anyone to play matchmaker. You sign-in using your Facebook account and right from the start you decide if you want to be a matchmaker or if you’re a single looking for your perfect match. The matchmaking feature is innovative here, because there are 2 ways to do that:

  • Match friends. You can play matchmaker for your friends and help them discover what they have in common that you believe makes them a good match. Think about this, on a regular dating site you look at a profile and decide to go further and even on a date with that someone based on what you read/see – not only that, but dating profiles sometimes resemble CVs, adding stuff there that’s not always accurate to say the least. So the whole process has some flaws and that’s why it can equal a bad date. On the other hand, your friends know you in a different way than you know yourself. And their observation skills might mean they’re better at finding someone that you might be a good match for.
  • Community matchmaking. This is the interesting part, you can match community members without knowing them. You see a main user profile and several secondary ones that Spritzr suggests. If you believe any of those are a good match just drag and drop it onto the main user profile. You can make 10 matches daily and even be rewarded (virtually for now) when a good match is done. If at least 2 more users do the same match as you, that member will receive a notification with the profile that matches.

I like this idea of crowd-based social matchmaking Spritzr uniquely introduced because it doesn’t seem shallow as opposed to Tinder’s way of finding dates based on who has better Photoshop skills. And talking about that comparison, here’s a quick “shallow vs Spritzr’s way of dating” video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9Cn2gXQ910

In an interview for CNBC, Spritzr’s CEO stated that “The human eye is a better matchmaker than an algorithm” and that seems spot on. An algorithm compares 0’s and 1’s and has no way of observing those little things that make you unique – friends on the other hand know you better.

Spritzr comes in 2 “flavors”, so depending on your OS here are the links to download & install it: Use it as an Android dating app or Apple dating app

Features

Date people recommended by people, not algorithms

The first thing Spritzr will ask you when signing-up is if you are looking for a date or if you already are in a relationship and just looking to help your friends or others (something you can change later in your profile). The dating side of Spritzr follows the logic of creating a profile and then finding others with common interests, that are near you. The more truthful you are in describing yourself, the better your chances of finding the perfect date.

Even if you’re not that honest in describing yourself, that’s where the uniqueness of Spritzr kicks in – no matter how you describe yourself, your friends know you for who you are. And they can recommend dates to you. This way you’ll attack the problem (i.e. not having that special someone) on 2 fronts, finding a date through regular means (i.e. browsing Spritzr’s database of singles) and also getting recommendations from friends. The control is always in your hands, meaning no matter how a match was suggested you have the choice of deciding if a meet-up is something worthwhile or not.

 

Do Cupid’s work & play matchmaker

If you tell Spritzr that you’re already in a relationship you’ll be considered a matchmaker, meaning your purpose will be that of helping your friends or community members find their match. Once you connect with Facebook you can add as Spritzr friends those that are already using it or invite others. As soon as you find a good match for one of your friends, you can suggest they hook up. They’ll receive a notification, go on a date, marry and live happily ever after, always being thankful to their matchmaker-godfather… in the best case scenario.

You can do more than be matchmaker for your friends, as you can suggest someone for a community member as well, without knowing them. All you see is the profile of someone that’s looking for a date, and below that recommended profiles that have things in common with that person. You can click on the info icon to see profile details for those particular members (the usual stuff, interests, occupation, education, political/religious views, …). When you’ve found a match just drag them together and that’s it – if 2 more members match those together they get a notification. You can make 10 matches daily, and you earn karma points for doing so.

Messages

You can start conversations within Spritzr either to simply chat and find out more about someone or to discuss more advanced things such as planning a meetup with someone you’re interested in. You can only message friends so those that aren’t befriended cannot initiate conversations with you. This gives you privacy and the flexibility to talk only with those you decide are a good fit for you. Messages are grouped by conversations for easier browsing, and a history is kept.

Notifications

Spritzr works for you (i.e. to help find a date) even when you don’t have it opened. I’m referring to push notifications that you get for important events, for instance every time you receive a new message, whenever a successful match is found or when your Facebook friends join Spritzr. Obviously you can easily disable a particular type of notifications (or all) from the app’s settings menu.

Social sign-in

Spritzr doesn’t require any annoying registrations or sign-ups. Simply sign-in using your Facebook account and that’s it, you’re back on Spritzr creating your profile and discovering other members. The only permissions required from Facebook are those to access your birth-date (to be sure you are an adult and allowed to join) and to see which of your friends are already on Spritzr. They need this because that’s where the power of Spritzr relies on, matchmaking via friends. The app never posts anything back to Facebook and in no case sends any requests on your behalf. They pinky swear.

Truly free

Spritzr doesn’t have any ads nor does it require any type of payment. I checked and double-checked, it’s truly free at this point. I’m thinking that down the road they might consider adding some in-app purchases, but for now that’s absolutely free so one more reason to use it as a dating app rather than others.

Conclusion

Spritzr’s combination of dating & matchmaking is unique, and since its launch in August 2015 it grew quite a bit, the Android version being almost at 50,000 installs. Not to mention that I’ve counted at least 25 press mentions in important publications (including CNBC, Glamour) so that’s one more reason to trust and use it to find love, or spread it.

Unfortunately for all the available ladies out there in the world I’m taken, however given that between 40-50% of all adults are unmarried (in the US) there’s enough fish in the pond. Just finding the right one takes time, and hopefully Spritzr will help you find a perfect date, using intel from your friends. I highly recommend you give it a try as a dating app if you’re single, and even if you’re in the relationship as a matchmaking app.

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