Guest Post: How LGBTQ Apps Can Keep Their Users Safe
Guest Post: Dating and friendship LGBTQ app Taimi gives advice on how similar apps can offer users complete protection.
Even though more people all over the world are declaring their support for the LGBTQ+ community, society is still struggling with discrimination based on sexual orientation. Gay people are often being assaulted just for who they love and even find themselves in danger because of their sexuality. Thus, they go online to make friends, to express themselves, to form their professional images and, of course, to date. At this point, a variety of dating services come to help, but according to recent media reports, their reliability can be questionable.
As a part of the dating industry, the Taimi Team is upset to realize that many apps fail to guarantee security for their users. From the very beginning, protecting privacy was the main focus of Taimi. Thus, the app’s team has developed a list of the essential tips for dating apps to use to ensure safety for their users.
Introduce photo verification.
One of the most widespread problems in the online dating world is scammers and catfish. There are so many people on dating apps trying to receive personal and financial information from other users, rook them or simply satisfy their needs by abusing others. Judging from our experience, in 99% of cases, these people create fake profiles with fake photos, so having in-app verification helps to block these profiles immediately after they are created.
This, in turn, means that a user can feel much safer using these apps. Furthermore, do not skimp resources, but rather create a separate team to work on verification. Outsourcing work with personal information and photos is not suitable for the LGBTQ+ audience, as even a small spill of data may create plenty of problems for the users.
Advise your users not to share too much information with other people.
It’s OK to share names or hobbies. However, sharing bank account information or a social security number is absolutely not necessary for making friends or finding love. Unfortunately, many users don’t understand this and the reason “I just want to make sure that you are not a scammer” sounds completely logical to them.
To overcome this, give them some obvious ways to prove this – add verification badges or video calls. This will make communication not only safer but also more interactive. In addition, the option to make a video call would help a user decide whether it is a good idea to continue the communication offline or not.
Take care of users’ private photos.
Almost all dating app users at some point decide to share private or intimate photos with other users – images they don’t want to keep on their public profiles. Very often, they later regret sharing those photos, especially if they stop communicating with that person. An easy solution to this problem would be introducing private albums with limited access, where only the owner of the photos would be able to give access to the album. This is a much safer way to share private content rather than just sending it in a message. Additionally, it will give your users a chance to “undo” the sharing if needed.
Develop an effective customer support team that will always be there to help.
Customers may have some doubts regarding using the application. Thus, they should always have a chance to ask for help or file a complaint. Whenever users find themselves in a tricky situation, in most cases, they contact the support team. It is important to have people who can provide immediate help and instructions on further steps.
Moreover, a good customer support team has plenty of perks for the product team: up to date feedback; first-hand improvement suggestions; increased user satisfaction; higher retention rate; lower rate of uninstalls and, of course, less negative reviews in the stores.
Give users the tools to protect their information.
We all know that coming out is often very scary and complicated. If a user’s sexuality is revealed after someone discovers a gay dating app on their phone, a person might find themselves in very tricky situations. Thus, develop some tools for your users to enable them to keep their profile on the app private. Set a PIN or fingerprint protection on the app login, allow users to register profiles without using their social networks, or give them a chance to change the icon of the app. This will make it much easier for them to use the app without worrying about someone finding out.
Visit the Taimi website here.
