Aisle Rolls Out ‘Exclusivity’ Feature

Indian dating app Aisle has released a new feature which allows users to see how many people their match has talked to over the past 3 days. While the tool is intended to reduce romance scams, other dating app founders have expressed concern about its potential consequences.

In a new post on LinkedIn, Aisle’s CEO and Founder Able Joseph discussed the motivation behind this new feature. Recognising the growing issue of romance scammers, Joseph’s team wanted to disincentivise fraudsters from joining their dating app.

A scambot on a dating app can be identified using rate-limit analysis, Joseph points out. Scammers on the other hand are harder to identify. However they do have one distinctive behaviour: lying.

Aisle’s new premium feature allows users to see how many other users their match has been talking to over the past few days, sharing whether it’s fewer than 5, more than 5, 10, 20, etc interactions. 

As scammers will lie about their deep feelings of love and devotion, having this ‘exclusivity’ information is intended to keep users informed about a match’s honesty. Tested in beta, Joseph shares that 57% of the conversations where a user enabled exclusivity did continue to talk to their matches. 17% of these cases lead to an unmatching.

Feedback on LinkedIn was mostly positive, with some commenters saying “It is a game-changer. This step not only reflects a commitment to user safety but also showcases a deep understanding of the intricacies of online interactions” and that this is “doing what is right for the users over what is profitable for the company…”.

However, Lee-Michael J. Pronko, CEO of Heartstring Dating App and Founder of #pitchyourfriend, expressed his concerns about the feature in a new blog post.

Pronko highlights that dating apps shape dating culture, and that this exclusivity feature will foster distrust amongst daters. He writes “Relationships, especially in their early stages, should be built on trust and understanding, not on surveillance and suspicion”.

Furthermore, Pronko points out that this feature could lead to singles commiting prematurely to an exclusive relationship, “as they might fear being perceived negatively if they have a higher number of interactions”.

While commending Aisle’s proactive approach to scammers, Pronko highlights education and awareness as suitable alternatives which can empower singles without the need for surveillance.

What do you think about this new feature?