It's nothing, it doesn't make a good impression on the photos.

Swipe left.

Oh, he is very cute and even has a photo with his dog.

And he loves to travel - swipe right for a like!

This is what the first steps in dating look like nowadays, preferably in the evening on the couch while some Netflix series is babbling in the background.

The choice of dating platforms is long: Tinder, Bumble, Parship, ElitePartner, Lovoo - and more.

Most portals have one thing in common: They mainly rely on photos.

Profiles without photos are usually ignored and immediately discarded.

Because: whether alone, with a pet, in a group, or just as a couple - the more photos, the better.

(Even if several people in one photo can lead to confusion).

An app full of unique selling points

The Swiss dating app “Lovetastic” is pursuing a different strategy. First of all, it only focuses on the inner values ​​- an app for reduced superficiality, so to speak. Photos can only be sent here after they have "liked" each other, ie after the match. According to “Lovetastic” founder Nicolas Schotten, this is a unique concept on the online dating market that is also well received: the app has already been downloaded over 150,000 times in Switzerland, Germany and Austria since it was launched at the end of 2019. According to Schotten, 100,000 of them are active users, and the trend is rising. It will take some time before the competition is caught up - in February 2021, the largest competitor, the American dating app Tinder in Germany, had almost 550,000 Android users registered. No figures are known for iOS users. 

“Appearance is just a small piece of the whole cake,” says Schotten.

But it is precisely this piece of cake that plays the biggest role in the matching process on other apps.

That's why he decided to focus primarily on the other pieces.

Because with “Lovetastic”, according to Schotten, you can visually imagine yourself without photos.

Make the user laugh

When creating a profile, in addition to the usual information such as name, age, place of residence and hobbies, external characteristics such as size, body type and smoking and sports habits are also asked for. You can also add a personal voice message to your profile. These would be particularly well received as they would make the profile much more personal. "You can imagine more of it and feel closer to the person - although you don't know them - if you have already heard the voice," believes Schotten - to his knowledge a unique concept. 

Since the personality would often be neglected in other apps, you should make a lot of effort, especially when describing it, in order to make the profile interesting. "It's not enough to write 'I'm looking for love' - the goal is to be able to imagine the person behind the profile as well as possible," says Schotten. The best that you can achieve with your profile is to make other users laugh.

Basically, the selection process on “Lovetastic” is similar to that of the competition: If you are not interested, you swipe to the left, if you are interested, to the right. So that you don't lose your great love by accidentally swiping to the left, “Lovetastic” also enables its users to bring back a person who has been accidentally swiped to the left - i.e. discarded - using a replay function. As soon as two people have given each other a like, a conversation can begin - and photos can be exchanged. This then shows whether it really only depends on the inner values, or whether the appearance is not ultimately decisive. If you do not want to do without unlimited likes and other features such as the filtering of profiles, you also have the option oftake out a paid premium subscription. 

Boom thanks to Corona

Like all other dating apps, “Lovetastic” has seen a boom in the past few months due to the corona.

Schotten reports that there was a significant increase in users, especially during the second lockdown.

"During the first lockdown last spring, the weather was still incredibly beautiful, but as soon as you are at home in winter and have no options like clubs and the like, then you are inevitably more on the phone and have more time for dating apps."

In any case, with “Lovetastic” an app has been added to the online dating market that represents an antagonist to the “classic” apps.

In the long term, Schotten would like dating apps to become less superficial and instead more authentic.

Everyone has to try for themselves whether this is actually a better way to find love.