Happn Rolls Out ‘See You There’ Feature To Help Users Arrange Offline Meetings

French dating app Happn has just unveiled a new feature that lets users arrange real life encounters with people they match with on the app.

The mobile service, which connects singles who have crossed paths in real life, is just about to roll out “See You There”, a new product update that lets users say whether they are free in the next few hours.

To use the feature, singles click the (+) button at the bottom of the home screen and add which activities they are free to do.

Once entered, this information appears on their timeline and can be viewed by the people they have already connected with.

And if one of their matches is interested in joining them on one of these dates, they simply click & send a message saying they are interested.

Speaking about the new feature, designed to increase the number of offline meetings between users, Happn CEO and founder Didier Rappaport said: “As society evolves and becomes more mobile, the dating industry has transformed to focus on encounters, pushing dating apps to become more social in their offering.

“The new ‘See You There’ feature is designed as a seamless integration to allow people to meet as they would on any given day — during regular daily activities — whether at a party, at work or at the gym. After all, they already have a built-in shared interest: the paths they have crossed.”

When using the feature, Happn members detail what they are free to do in the next four hours, and have six options to choose from, including “Go for a walk”, “Get a drink”, “Go out”, “Grab a bite”, “Go for a run” or “Catch a movie”.

The feature is an extension of Happn’s “crossed paths” brand – which picks up and adds singles to your feed depending on where you go – by saying if two people recently passed each other, they could quickly arrange a date somewhere nearby.

It also taps into the “on-demand” trend in the industry, driven by new startups that aim to strip back online dating by focusing more on generating offline dates, Uber-style, rather than keeping singles online endlessly swiping and messaging.

And Happn is one of the biggest dating services to dip its toes into these waters, albeit in a fairly limited way – only allowing spontaneous dates with its four hour time limit, unlike other on-demand services which let users choose from a range of dates & times.

Happn said this release is the start of a “new era” for the product, saying its mission is now focused on “encouraging real-life encounters.”

CEO Rappaport said: “We created Happn as a way for people to meet others who are already in some way part of their lives. We’re constantly focused on enhancing the Happn experience for our users.

“We want happners to forge long-lasting, deep connections — the kind of relationships that begin by meeting each other in person, whether it’s for love or simply to find a new friend with shared interests.”

And with the launch of the new feature, Happn is also changing its app icon, which now shows two arrows crossing each other’s path.

Launched in February 2014, Happn currently has over 17m users and is live in 40 major cities worldwide, including Paris, London, Hong Kong and New York.

This latest feature comes after the French company recently added a voice feature to the app, letting users send one-minute audio clips to their matches.

Happn also integrates with both Instagram & Spotify, letting users show 30 photos directly from their Instagram feed, and allowing users to send tracks to one another.

The new See You There feature is being rolled out to all users tomorrow, Tuesday 17th May.

To find out more about the feature, watch the video below: