Match Group’s ‘Archer’ App Wants to Offer Gay Men So Many Targets They Can’t Miss

Match Group, the institution that’s mostly known for gobbling up immoderate of the astir fashionable apps successful the dating market, announced Thursday it’s present promoting its ain app called Archer. Rather than different Tinder clone, Archer is specifically geared for gay, bisexual, and queer men. More than that, devs are hoping that users tin much easy find emotion if they’re bombarded with images of dozens of section singles astatine a time.

Compared to the Tinder-esque Grindr, Archer is little focused connected swipes and much connected showing users a wider enactment of users done 2 abstracted grid layouts successful a linear provender selectable connected the main app screen. One layout shows 15 profiles, portion a zoomed-out presumption displays dozens astatine erstwhile successful tiny headshots (perhaps trying to stray from Grindr’s notorious body-shots lone motif).

The 3rd layout is person to OkCupid oregon Hinge’s layout, though it’s inactive picture-heavy with a tiny conception for a bio, pre-set searchable tags (users should beryllium capable to yet make their ain customized tags), and dating expectations. Match Group claims it’s trying to beryllium a “safe space” for users claiming it uses some AI and quality moderation to verify idiosyncratic profiles. The app is besides expected to automatically blur images erstwhile it detects nudity to chopped down connected unnecessary flashing.

In a release, Marcus Lofthouse, the main merchandise serviceman astatine Archer who has antecedently worked connected OKCupid, said “we’ve relied connected feedback from the assemblage to physique the unsocial level acquisition they’re looking for to empower men to beryllium their afloat selves, and to genuinely, and much safely, link with others.”

The app is acceptable for pre-registration connected some Apple’s App Store and Play Store, though the archetypal motorboat is restricted to Los Angeles and Washington D.C. Archer should spell unrecorded sometime aboriginal successful June and should grow to much U.S. cities successful the coming months.

The eventual program seems to beryllium to crook Archer into 1 portion dating app, and different portion Instagram. Users volition yet beryllium capable to upload much than 20 pictures on with “ephemeral content-sharing options” on with radical chats to organize—ahem—“communities.” Match Group said users tin besides “follow” profiles to get updates connected those most-datable, though the institution promised it would grow that diagnostic successful time.

The contention for gay-centric dating apps is limited. Grindr is the biggest lad connected the artifact (some pun intended). Last year, the app was acquired by Tiga Acquisition Corp which past took the institution public. Since then, the app has travel nether occurrence for selling users’ determination data, a problem that has reportedly continued into 2023.

The conglomerate that is Match Group owns astir of the world’s dating apps, including OkCupid, Hinge, Tinder, and more. One important void successful its roster has been LGBTQ-specific dating apps, contempt the institution acknowledging however galore folks successful that assemblage trust connected integer dating apps. The institution has seen immoderate tiny gross declines successful 2022, and it seems Match Group is trying to reinvent its representation from being the down and soiled facilitators of weird Tinder dates. The institution precocious reconfigured Tinder’s guidelines to nix couples profiles and enactment work. Tinder is besides working connected a super-exclusive, ultra-expensive $500 subscription service that’s expected to cogwheel straight to the semi-rich and semi-famous.