Noelia Marín Madrid

Madrid

Updated Friday, March 15, 2024-02:26

  • Others Dating apps are renewed: from flirting from the couch to matching in mid-flight

  • Partner Agatha Armstrong, psychologist and author of 'Why We Don't Know How to Flirt': "If someone gives you false hope, I recommend that you express what you feel. Don't be left wanting"

The way of

dating

has evolved in recent years between

Tinder

matches and

long

WhatsApp conversations before meeting physically.

Relationships that begin with

a look in a bar or a smile in a subway car

are becoming less common , especially among young people.

That is the conclusion reached at the age of only 21 by two Spanish Business Administration students,

Arturo Vacas and Martín Zulueta

, after realizing that both they and their friends, when they liked someone,

found it very difficult to take the step of starting. a conversation in person.

However, they were not attracted to the idea of ​​flirting on conventional dating apps because it seemed

superficial

to them , like

choosing a person "from a catalogue"

.

That's why they decided to found

Closer

, a free dating app that they define as

the complete opposite of a dating app.

"I have a lot of friends, including myself, who have never used dating apps. But this is the opposite, a way to materialize a real connection that you have made on the street and get away from the superficiality of a photo or a retouching.

Love is in the street, your parents have met on the street

," says Joaquín González, creative director of the app.

Her project partner, Inés Velasco, who is in charge of communication, maintains that younger people have a "negative" perception of conventional dating applications: "They are used for short things, things, but very few people truly know their couples".

See this post on Instagram

Here

neither

match

, nor 'super like', nor

boost

nor a catalog of photographs

in which you look good - and which can sometimes be far from reality.

In this new app everything is very organic, they explain: you are in class, in the supermarket or on a plane and you see someone you like.

At that moment you can enter their platform and send them a contact request (as long as they are also a user of the app) that they call

Wink

and, if you want, impress them by answering an original question.

When your paths separate and you lose track of him, you will receive a notification.

If he accepts it, you can start chatting.

Otherwise,

the crush will be forgotten.

They decided to do it this way because it seemed very embarrassing for the person to receive the notification at the same moment.

"If I am embarrassed to approach you to talk to you or ask for your phone number, it would be just as embarrassing if a message from me or a photo appeared on your cell phone while I was in front of you," explains Arturo Vacas, one of the founders of the project.

"Archaic" flirting tactics

This young man remembers that before designing the app they launched a survey on their networks and 99% of the participants said that it was very difficult for them to take the step of talking in person with someone who had caught their attention.

What's more, many, to attract attention, carried out "archaic" tactics, such as

secretly taking photographs

of the person in question to share them on networks and try to locate them later.

Or what is worse: take a photo of your phone number and send it via Bluetooth to all the contacts who were nearby in the hope that one of those who received it would be the person you had liked and would write to you.

"Our parents had no other option to flirt. There was no fear of rejection. We stayed on the phone"

But...

why is it so difficult for new generations to flirt the old way?

"Our parents had no other option. They didn't live tied to a cell phone, there was no fear of rejection, no shyness, no shame. We didn't let go of the phone. My little brother, for example, I doubt he would ever approach a girl ask him for the phone number because he has another way of doing things," says Vacas.

The creative director of the project insists on that idea: "We like to say that

Closer is like getting to know yourself again like your parents or grandparents did

."

This young man highlights that they also detected that many couples who have met on dating apps do not dare to tell the origin of their relationship because there are still many

stigmas

about this way of flirting.

"Many people have to invent that they met through mutual friends. Here you have met on the Metro or in a bar and you have used the app to see

who that girl in the leather jacket in front of you was and you liked her

" , he emphasizes.

To create an account you only have to enter

three pieces of information,

unlike other platforms: your name, a photo and your sexual orientation.

With

4,000 downloads in just 24 hours

, the goal of these young people is for as many people as possible to download it to have a large bank of users and for these

virtual crushes

to materialize.

Closer.EM Team

Since they had the idea, it took these young people three years to design this application that combines technologies such as

Bluetooth, GPS and mobile networks

to locate that better half that you have seen sitting in front of you.

And, after a lot of work, a third founder entered the scene, Luis Casado, a finance expert who lives in Dubai.

For now, the app has a range of action between 25 and 50 meters, which is the maximum distance they estimate there may be to catch someone's eye.

And in part, that has made designing the app a technological challenge, according to its creators.