With the proliferation of mobile apps, there seems to be two growing trends—mobile dating and photo or video sharing.
In fact, a recent report by Pew Research Center shows that 7% of cell phone apps users (representing 3% of all adults) say that they have used a dating app on their cell phone. Two-thirds (66%) of online daters have gone on a date with someone they met through a dating site or app, and nearly a quarter (23%) of online daters say they have met a spouse or long term partner through these sites.
Another Pew Research Center study states that over half (54%) of internet users have posted original photos or videos to websites.
“Sharing photos and videos online adds texture, play, and drama to people’s interactions in their social networks,” said Pew Internet’s Maeve Duggan, author of the report. “Pictures document life from a special angle, whether they relate to small moments, personal milestones, or larger news and events. Mobile connectivity has brought these visuals into countless lives in real-time. This all adds up to a new kind of collective digital scrapbook with fresh forms of storytelling and social bonding.”
A new iPhone app called Revel (free), hopes to combine both online dating and photo sharing with a third newly evolving trend, gamification, to make the whole process fun and painless. The game is a live, social photo scavenger hunt that gets you using your phone to initiate conversations and take photos of cool, fun, and exciting people, things, and situations.
Revel wants you to stop hiding behind your device and start meeting local singles through playing games and socializing in the real world.
You can start a game with friends or join ongoing nearby games and hunt for fun scenarios to photograph. The first to get five pictures in a row on a bingo-like board wins the game!
The app also encourages you to act out different scenes if you are not able to locate the scenes within the app.
What do you think? Will games enhance the dating experience? Leave a comment below.