Melding Hearts and Algorithms: Building a Dating App From Scratch in 2023

Dating websites and apps have transformed the way people connect, offering a unique digital playground for romance and relationships. As a software engineer, I have always found dating apps fascinating. Why?

Because they encase an intriguing blend of challenges that span UI/UX design, real-time communication, security, and data analytics; and as an engineer, challenges fire me up! Coincidentally, this quality also makes dating apps an ideal case study for aspiring developers.

In this article, you will find guidelines for building a dating app from scratch. We will delve into crucial elements like understanding your audience, defining your value proposition, and exploring viable monetization strategies. And finally, we will walk through a simplified system design to create a Minimum Viable Product for your app.

Whether you are a seasoned developer or a novice desiring to make a mark in the digital dating arena, I invite you to join me on the enticing journey of crafting a cutting-edge dating app.

Business Design

Before we dive into the details of coding and design, we must lay a solid foundation by defining your dating app’s business aspects. Think of this section as your roadmap, one that will guide you through the vital decisions that will shape the user experience and long-term viability of your app before you write a single line of code. Roll up your sleeves, and let's get into the essentials of business design.

Step 1. Understand your audience

• Demographic Insights: Conduct thorough research on your target audience's age, location, gender, and cultural background.

• Behavioral Patterns: Analyze user behavior on existing dating apps to understand preferences, habits, and pain points.

• User Surveys: Collect direct feedback through surveys or interviews to gain deeper insights into user expectations and desires.

• Tech Comfort: Assess the level of tech-savviness to tailor the app's interface and features accordingly.

Step 2. Define your value proposition

• Unique Features: Identify and emphasize features that make your app stand out, whether it is advanced matching algorithms, innovative communication tools, or enhanced security measures.

• User Experience (UX): Prioritize a seamless and enjoyable user experience, focusing on intuitive navigation and visually appealing design.

• Brand Story: Craft a compelling brand story that will resonate with users and communicate the mission and values of your dating app.

Step 3. Explore monetization strategy options

• Freemium Models: Offer basic features for free while charging for premium features.

• In-App Purchases: Integrate virtual goods or services that users can purchase to boost their experience.

• Subscription Plans: Implement tiered subscription plans, providing different levels of access or perks based on user preferences.

• Ad Revenue: Consider incorporating non-intrusive ads to generate revenue without compromising user experience.

Step 4. Consider partnerships and integrations

• Strategic Partnerships: Collaborate with complementary services or platforms to enhance the overall user experience.

• Social Media Integrations: Enable users to seamlessly connect their profiles with social media accounts for a more authentic experience.

• Event Collaborations: Partner with local events and businesses to facilitate real-world interactions and community building.

• API Integrations: Explore integrating APIs for features like location services, payment gateways, or third-party authentication.

  UI/UX and Tools to Build It

Now that we have outlined our business strategy, it is time to delve into the user interface and experience. Below, you will find some fundamental design principles and tools you will need to bring your vision to life.

1. Prioritize a user-friendly interface

• Intuitive Navigation: Design an interface that users can navigate effortlessly. Minimize the learning curve with a simple and logical user flow.

• User-Centric Approach: Consider user preferences and behaviors to create an interface that meets their expectations.

2. Design visually appealing profiles and interactive features

• Engaging Visuals: Craft visually appealing profiles that capture attention.

• Utilize high-quality images and a consistent design language.

• Interactive Elements: Implement features that encourage user interaction. This could include swipe gestures, engaging animations, or personalized avatars.

3. Use prototyping tools like Sketch or Figma for UI design:

• Sketch: A vector-based design tool for creating user interfaces. It facilitates the creation of wireframes, mockups, and prototypes with ease.

• Figma: An interface design tool that allows real-time collaboration, making it suited for teamwork and feedback integration.

4. Ensure a seamless and enjoyable user experience throughout your app:

• Consistent Design Language: Maintain a consistent design language across all screens to provide a cohesive user experience.

• User Testing: Conduct usability testing to identify potential pain points and areas for improvement.

• Accessibility: Make sure the app is accessible to users with diverse needs, including those with disabilities.

  System Design

In this final section, I will outline a simplified system design inspired by apps like Tinder and Badoo. Before delving into the technical details, it is crucial to conduct a preliminary assessment, taking into account key metrics such as the initial number of users (with projections for future growth), requests per second (RPS), and other relevant parameters.

This preliminary analysis will enable you to estimate potential expenses, encompassing cloud infrastructure, workforce requirements, and other performance benchmarks.

For the purposes of this article, we will not delve into considerations for extreme loads, as our primary focus is on constructing a Minimum Viable Product. However, even in MVP, optimizing user experience is crucial; hence, we will aim to strike a balance where users don't experience prolonged wait times for page loading.

System design includes several major services:

• Users clients that depend on business needs such as an Android application, iOS application, or website.

• Load distributor. In our case, we will use the NGINX reverse proxy responsible for distributing requests all over the nodes, and the distribution mechanism will be round-robin.

• Backend API to communicate with all the services in the project, including the database, cache, SMS/Email services, and queue (in our case – SQS AWS).

• Backend queue reader service – a service to read messages from SQS queues (I will provide an explanation of why we need it below).

• Database. We will use PostgreSQL, but there are other reliable options like MongoDB.

• Cache - Memcache/Redis.

The general mechanism will work the following way. Let’s assume we have a new user – the flow will fit into a few steps:

1. A new user has to register and complete a KYC check (for example, to prove that the user is over 18):

   1. Send the first request to the server with the user’s information and ID scan. This operation may take some time, as too many users may want to join simultaneously.

   2. Therefore, we can simply save documents to AWS S3 storage and send the message to SQS AWS.

   3. In due time, the queue reader service will take the message from the queue and handle all the docs using specialized AI for reading data from the docs.

   4. In this case, the user doesn’t have to wait for the response since the app will notify them that KYC has been completed, and the user can begin swiping.

2. BackendAPI. The API has to include the following topics:

• Authentication, sign-up actions such as KYC, providing user details, etc.
• An API for user notifications: pushes, email, and messages.
• Subsidiary APIs, e.g., an API to send messages to SQS.
• Matchmaking mechanism API.

3. Database interaction: since in our case we used PostgreSQL and AWS RDS, we should strictly regulate the app’s pooling mechanism to manage all the load heading our way.

4. Caching: keep here all the data we will use most often.

5. The matchmaking mechanism:

   1. To implement it, we need to employ some periodic task system.

   2. One of the solutions that can be used is AWS Lambda. For example, we can configure that every hour, we send a message to SQS, and the queue reader service takes it and, based on users already present in the database, we generate matches and fill the database.

   3. Accordingly, when the user swipes right, we put it to the likes table, otherwise – to dislikes. This data can be later used to suggest more relevant candidates to the user.

Conclusion

We have covered a lot of ground together, from crafting your business strategy to diving into UI/UX principles and even touching on system design. And remember, creating a dating app is not just about code but about building meaningful connections between people.

As you work on your dating app, aim not just to fit into existing trends but to offer something new.

The magic lies in the details – listening to user feedback, continuous feature refinement, and a focus on user experience can transform your app from good to unforgettable.

You are the architect behind the next digital love story – make it one for the ages!