This article is from WeChat official account:White whale going to sea (ID: baijingapp), author: Xin Tong, from the title figure: vision China

In the first weekly update feature “New Products” released by Beluga Going to the Sea on November 9, the serial number (1) SpecUdate-the ice-breaking point moves forward, and another major student’s entrepreneurial achievement has become the most concerned topic.

There are only two reasons for wanting to be noticed. 1. Past student entrepreneurship projects Facebook, SnapChat, and Monkey have all affected the development of social products to a certain extent, so when everyone sees eye-catching college student entrepreneurial products, they will inevitably be excited. Social networking is more geared towards young people, after all, only oneself understands oneself better. Second, for many social apps and even offline social scenes, “ice breaking” can be said to be a century-old problem. If you can successfully complete the ice-breaking link, you can greatly improve mutual affection and social efficiency.

In fact, in the past few years, many social app developers, especially stranger social developers, have been trying to find a good ice-breaking method, but unfortunately, as of now, they have not found a very popular and comprehensive method. The method of successful verification, so the ice-breaking method shared next is only for your reference.

1. Move the freezing point forward to draw closer the relationship from true to false

Let’s go back to the fun interactive social app SpecUdate mentioned in the previous article. In the first issue of “New Products”, it was mentioned that SpecUdate is a fun interactive social app that only went live in September 2020. Currently available downloads and Income data are very limited. According to EVA data, SpecUdate has about 107 downloads in the past 30 days, with a user rating of 3.8, and no revenue has been generated yet.

1. The improvised alumni team makes SpecUdate more interesting

According to LinkedIn data, SpecUdate currently has only three employees. According to the resume, the three should be George Mason University alumni, and they are three bright-headed young men. Except for the CTO, the other two have not graduated, except for the CEO. There are other undertakings outside.

Data source: LinkedIn

But it was this “provisional” team that made some users shout “found a new way to match friends.” This is related to SpecUdate’s choice to move the ice breaking point forward and make an interesting upgrade of the ice breaking method.

User comments | Data source: Sensor Tower

SpecUdate transfers the freezing point to the user session before the user’s session, when registering the information, the user needs to fill in at least one question and answer about their truth and lies, and also provide a multiple choice question, and this step is not possible Skip, which means that every user on SpecUdate must abide by the icebreaking method set by SpecUdate. Both parties need to answer each other’s questions before officially starting the chat. Only when the correct rate reaches 50% or above can both parties initiate a conversation.

SpecUdate reduces the matching frequency to a certain extent but greatly improves the response rate and conversation efficiency. Although SpecUdate advertises itself as “the world’s first dating company that provides ice-breaking aids” in its app store introduction, according to the author’s knowledge, there have been some companies working in this direction both in the past and now. Among them, the more well-known apps should be Icebreaker, XO and Jigglr.

2. The three generations of the old, Chinese and the new Freezing Point Advance App have their own advantages

Although the three applications will move the ice-breaking point forward, the actual practical ideas are quite different. Icebreaker and Jigglr break the ice with their interested users, while XO uses ice-breaking games to find users who may be interested. See the figure below for details.

The three apps each have their own advantages, but they also have their own problems:

(1) Icebreaker was launched earlier, and the options for icebreaking are very diverse, including essay questions, multiple-choice questions, pictures, videos, animations, and personalized drawing creation, leaving a lot of space for users to customize. It can also allow both parties to interact more deeply on the issue.

Icebreaker page screenshot

But it’s a pity that Icebreaker stopped updating only after it was updated to version 2.0 in March 2019. I guess it might be because Icebreaker’s setting is “There is no chance to initiate a conversation without completing the opponent’s icebreaking mission.” Many users choose high-threshold ice-breaking methods such as shooting videos and graffiti, which discourages other users. However, I personally think that regardless of the design on the UI or the idea, Icebreaker can be regarded as a good app, it is a pity that it has not been continuously updated.

(2) XO provides users with two options for making friends. Users can either swipe left or right to express their wishes like using Tinder, or they can choose to randomly match users after the icebreaker game, and the choice of games includes User profile quiz games such as Icebreaker also include crosswords and topic discussion games.

But XO also has its own problems. For example, when entering the same game, the user can “leave the icebreaker game without a sound”, which will affect the communication efficiency to a large extent, and it is very difficult to encounter the other party leaving many times. Easily consume the enthusiasm and satisfaction of users.

XO page screenshot

(3) Compared with other applications, Jigglr is still a cute new application that has only been online for less than half a year, but it also has its own characteristics. For example, although the user can see a rich user database, each user photo that he sees is composed of mosaics. The user can only see the complete photo of the other party after answering the question and getting the other party’s response, which is more conducive to two interesting souls. Close.

Jigglr page screenshot

Although the overall ratings of several apps are not very high, But this has something to do with the fact that the comment base is too small. Generally speaking, more users feedback in the comment area that these apps have brought them joy and eased embarrassment. Therefore, the solution of moving the freezing point forward is worthy of consideration by developers .

But moving the ice-breaking point forward is not suitable for all apps, because whether it’s Q&A or other ice-breaking games, it actually raises the threshold for users, which may cause trouble for some users who are “afraid of trouble”, Therefore, developers need to consider the actual situation of their applications.

I will also share some ice-breaking solutions used in regular apps below for your reference.

II. The exploration of ice-breaking schemes by conventional dating companies

1. Interest label classification

The global dating giant Tinder has introduced interest tagging in many markets including India, Brazil, and China to encourage users to start chatting on the similarities and differences of their interests. This is also an ice-breaking method used by many dating apps to allow both users Slowly approached in the process of seeking common ground while reserving differences. It may not be a strong medicine for users to break the ice, but the victory is that it is universal.

Tinder interest page screenshot

2. Use emoticons to ease embarrassment

Bumle, a female-friendly dating app, recently launched the emoji function to help female users “turn away from the host”. On Bumble, after the two users like each other and the match is successful, only female users can initiate conversations, but there are also many female users who are shy to express. Bumble veteran user SelinaEarlier in an interview with the media, he said, “You can send emoticons as the first sentence, which reduces my pressure a lot.”

Bumble emoji package screenshot

But the current Bumble emoji package setting is also very simple. There are only 9 emojis, and they are not much different from the system emojis. They are not enough to make the user’s first sentence more diversified and personalized. Bumble brought another wave of praise. So if you can make more settings in this direction, there may be unexpected results.

3. Topic tips

Many companies like the video dating app HOLLA will set topic prompts for users. Most of the topics prompted by the system are very broad and discussable, which is more suitable for most users. For example, “Stop using Hi to say hello, try asking the other person about the weather” and so on.

According to a previous survey conducted by Medium, 81.8% of female users on Tinder will choose to reply to the other party’s message when they receive a message from the other party “Can you share your travel hobbies or dietary preferences?” Have a continuous chat. When HOLLA first launched the topic reminder function, it also received a wave of praise.

Visible topic prompts can not only enhance the user’s favorability of the App, but also increase the user’s conversation efficiency. It can do two things with one stone. However, note that when setting topic prompts, both universality and discussability must be considered.

4. Use movies, music and constellations to bring users closer

In fact, movies, music, and constellations, which are globally focused content, have very strong ice-breaking capabilities, and this kind of shadowLoudness is not only offline, but also online.

Tinder began to use Spotify as early as 2016 to promote, users can choose their favorite songs on Tinder and display them on their personal homepages. The five-year cooperation between the two is actually enough to prove the positive impact of introducing “music” on ice-breaking friends.

In addition, after the “Nostalgic Sitcoms” feature was introduced on the user homepage of the App Ship for Love Observation and Dating, users using this feature increased their matching chances by 20% compared to before.

Tinder introduces Spotify (left) and Ship introduces comedy (right) screenshots

The power of the constellation should not be underestimated. In addition to the US emerging video dating app S’More and the astrology company Yodha Horoscopes, they have launched a free daily horoscope service for users. According to the author, the social app SnapChat has also recently The constellation function is introduced to create constellation dating. According to data from the Pew Research Center, more than 60% of American adults in the United States believe in astrology. Another Pew survey report also shows that many Americans now talk about constellations and astrolabes, just like talking about the weather, and sometimes the constellations even influence people’s views and judgments. Constellation may also be a great tool to help Chinese developers penetrate into mature markets such as the United States.

In addition, there are actually many points for icebreaking, such as pets, schools, food, etc…. The most important thing is to find the best icebreaking method for your application.


This article is from WeChat official account:White whale going to sea (ID: baijingapp)< span class = "text-remarks">, author: oct children