Should I Build It Should I Build It
19 Apr 2025
Dating

App with tinder-like UI that enables people to decide what to do and ...

...where to go out in an area.

Confidence
Engagement
Net use signal
Net buy signal

Idea type: Run Away

Multiple attempts have failed with clear negative feedback. Continuing down this path would likely waste your time and resources when better opportunities exist elsewhere.

Should You Build It?

Don't build it.

Your are here

Your idea for an app that uses a Tinder-like interface to help people decide what to do and where to go in their area falls into a crowded space with numerous similar attempts. Our analysis, based on 17 similar products, suggests a 'Run Away' scenario, indicating that past attempts have generally failed, and users often express negative sentiments. High engagement (average of 17 comments) for similar products signals people are talking, but unfortunately, we don't have buy or use signals to see whether that talk is positive or negative. The number of competitors suggests that you will need to bring a lot of newness to the market for anyone to even notice your product, and even more to actually adopt it. Given these factors, it's crucial to carefully consider whether this is the best direction for your efforts.

Recommendations

  1. Carefully review the criticism summaries from similar products, especially the negative comments, to identify the reasons for past failures. For example, users of similar 'Tinder, but to decide what to eat' apps criticized the limited added value and lack of features. Understanding these pain points can help you avoid repeating the same mistakes.
  2. Consider if your skills and passion could be applied to a related but different problem within the social or local discovery space. Is there an adjacent area where your expertise might find a better fit and less competition?
  3. If you've already started building the app, explore whether the technology you've developed could be repurposed for a different application. Maybe the matching algorithm could be used in a completely different context.
  4. Talk to at least three people who have tried similar apps. Ask them about their specific needs, what frustrated them, and what they wished the app could do. This direct feedback can provide valuable insights for pivoting or identifying unmet needs.
  5. Based on the user interviews and competitive analysis, brainstorm new ideas that address the identified gaps and avoid the pitfalls of previous attempts. Don't be afraid to explore completely different approaches to solving the problem of social and local discovery.
  6. Before investing significant time and resources into a new idea, validate it with potential users. Create a simple prototype or landing page to gauge interest and gather feedback before committing to full development.
  7. Given the concerns about user privacy related to listed events for products like 'Streak: The Party App,' carefully consider the privacy implications of your app and implement robust privacy safeguards.

Questions

  1. Considering the competition in the location-based social app space, what unique value proposition will your app offer that existing solutions lack? How will you differentiate your app to attract and retain users?
  2. Many similar apps face challenges with user retention and achieving critical mass. How will you address these challenges and ensure long-term user engagement and growth for your app?
  3. Given the negative feedback on subscription models for similar apps, how will you monetize your app in a way that is sustainable and appealing to users? Have you considered alternative monetization strategies, such as in-app advertising or partnerships with local businesses?

Your are here

Your idea for an app that uses a Tinder-like interface to help people decide what to do and where to go in their area falls into a crowded space with numerous similar attempts. Our analysis, based on 17 similar products, suggests a 'Run Away' scenario, indicating that past attempts have generally failed, and users often express negative sentiments. High engagement (average of 17 comments) for similar products signals people are talking, but unfortunately, we don't have buy or use signals to see whether that talk is positive or negative. The number of competitors suggests that you will need to bring a lot of newness to the market for anyone to even notice your product, and even more to actually adopt it. Given these factors, it's crucial to carefully consider whether this is the best direction for your efforts.

Recommendations

  1. Carefully review the criticism summaries from similar products, especially the negative comments, to identify the reasons for past failures. For example, users of similar 'Tinder, but to decide what to eat' apps criticized the limited added value and lack of features. Understanding these pain points can help you avoid repeating the same mistakes.
  2. Consider if your skills and passion could be applied to a related but different problem within the social or local discovery space. Is there an adjacent area where your expertise might find a better fit and less competition?
  3. If you've already started building the app, explore whether the technology you've developed could be repurposed for a different application. Maybe the matching algorithm could be used in a completely different context.
  4. Talk to at least three people who have tried similar apps. Ask them about their specific needs, what frustrated them, and what they wished the app could do. This direct feedback can provide valuable insights for pivoting or identifying unmet needs.
  5. Based on the user interviews and competitive analysis, brainstorm new ideas that address the identified gaps and avoid the pitfalls of previous attempts. Don't be afraid to explore completely different approaches to solving the problem of social and local discovery.
  6. Before investing significant time and resources into a new idea, validate it with potential users. Create a simple prototype or landing page to gauge interest and gather feedback before committing to full development.
  7. Given the concerns about user privacy related to listed events for products like 'Streak: The Party App,' carefully consider the privacy implications of your app and implement robust privacy safeguards.

Questions

  1. Considering the competition in the location-based social app space, what unique value proposition will your app offer that existing solutions lack? How will you differentiate your app to attract and retain users?
  2. Many similar apps face challenges with user retention and achieving critical mass. How will you address these challenges and ensure long-term user engagement and growth for your app?
  3. Given the negative feedback on subscription models for similar apps, how will you monetize your app in a way that is sustainable and appealing to users? Have you considered alternative monetization strategies, such as in-app advertising or partnerships with local businesses?

  • Confidence: High
    • Number of similar products: 17
  • Engagement: High
    • Average number of comments: 17
  • Net use signal: -10.5%
    • Positive use signal: 4.7%
    • Negative use signal: 15.3%
  • Net buy signal: -14.4%
    • Positive buy signal: 1.4%
    • Negative buy signal: 15.8%

This chart summarizes all the similar products we found for your idea in a single plot.

The x-axis represents the overall feedback each product received. This is calculated from the net use and buy signals that were expressed in the comments. The maximum is +1, which means all comments (across all similar products) were positive, expressed a willingness to use & buy said product. The minimum is -1 and it means the exact opposite.

The y-axis captures the strength of the signal, i.e. how many people commented and how does this rank against other products in this category. The maximum is +1, which means these products were the most liked, upvoted and talked about launches recently. The minimum is 0, meaning zero engagement or feedback was received.

The sizes of the product dots are determined by the relevance to your idea, where 10 is the maximum.

Your idea is the big blueish dot, which should lie somewhere in the polygon defined by these products. It can be off-center because we use custom weighting to summarize these metrics.

Similar products

Relevance

Cielo – I built an app where you can get dinner with strangers(SF only)

19 Apr 2024 Tech

Heya HN! We built an app where you can set preferences for the kinds of people you want to meet and we make dinner reservations for you and 4 other people. doing a soft launch this week and just wanted to show off what we had built ;)How it works: sign up with google or apple answer a few quick questions about yourself. set your preferences(Industry, Interest, Age, etc) Click 'Join' for the day you are free. Show up to dinner and meet your people :)We are SF only for now! App is freeeeeeeeeee(for a short time)

Avatar
2
2
Relevance

Streak: The Party App - Discover, create & attend events in your area

09 Dec 2023 Social Networking Party Drinking

The all-in-one tool for planning, hosting, and attending parties. Hosts can customize the privacy settings for their party and track attendance. Guests can attend public events and receive invitations to private parties.

The Product Hunt launch received overwhelmingly positive feedback, with users congratulating the team and praising the app's concept for enhancing social connections and nightlife. Users see it as a useful and innovative party companion, particularly for travelers. Suggestions include collaborative playlist features and more information on privacy, city availability, marketing strategies, and competitive advantages. Concerns about user retention from past app launches were noted. Overall, users expressed excitement and offered support for the app's potential to disrupt the nightlife space.

Users expressed concerns about user retention and the difficulty of gaining traction due to established social media channels. Questions were raised regarding user privacy related to listed events. Furthermore, users inquired about the marketing plan and competitive advantages considering the crowded market landscape.

Avatar
125
29
10.3%
29
125
10.3%
Relevance

Tinder, but to decide what to eat

03 Nov 2024 Dating

Hello HN,My girlfriend and I waste too much energy to decide what to eat. Every day, we would text each other, "what do we eat tonight" messages, and go over options and many times spend too much time on deciding. I am an indie dev and created this app to solve my own problem: decide with my girlfriend what to eat for dinner.Initially, I created a simple app, in which we listed all the recipes we ever prepared, and it would propose randomly three of them. We would then choose together one of them. This app[0] turned into a tinder-like app, which would propose every day a set of recipes to my girlfriend and me - we would swipe and go for the first match.If have some time, give it a try and feedback is very appreciated!Cheers, Kiru[0] https://apps.apple.com/us/app/meal-planner-dinner-ideas/id64...

The Show HN product has been criticized for limited added value, high cost, and a lack of features such as complete recipes, sharing options, and restaurant listings. Users find the subscription model unjustified and prefer a one-time purchase. The app is seen as basic, with a shallow experience that doesn't justify the price. There are concerns about the effectiveness of the algorithm, the practicality of the swipe feature, and the app's appeal to different demographics. Additionally, there are technical issues like crashes and a lack of cross-platform availability.

https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=Tajnymag

I see how that isn't a pocket money amount of cash. However, that's still a price I would be willing to pay to have a single shot try at the event. I might actually try it this month.

https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=rafamvc

I think there is a market. I pay for mealime monthly, I don't even know how much it costs. The cost of an app to help the family choose a dinner menu instead of eating out is worth it. Not only for money savings, but for health as well.One of the best features is to streamline the online ordering from the app.It works very well.

https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=CrazyStat

If the price was reasonable (less than ten cents in this case), absolutely.

https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=Y_Y

This is actually a great idea. Lots of subscriptions just pay for a thing to be available. Netflix will tell you "sleeping giants" who never watch are ok, because the content was made available, but I think that's BS. I'd love to see a system where you're only billed on the months that you use it. Or even just charge me a dollar per use with a monthly cap of ten after which the rest of the month is free.

https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=Kwpolska

I would benefit from the app myself, primarily. And I would need to pay to host it anyway. Others may also make use of it, with no warranty, and no guarantee of me keeping the service running for any length of time.

https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=woodylondon

I like the idea and face the same challenge. I’ve just installed it and, from my first impressions, it seemed a bit basic. Here’s what I expected:Hundreds of recipes that I could swipe left and right through, allowing me to build up a typical selection of what I would usually eat. Instead, I was presented with only three choices, none of which I would generally consider.A simple way to send the code to my wife — via imessage, Telegram, etc. Instead, I had to tell her in person! :)This presents the perfect opportunity to delve into shopping lists where the wife wants something healthy, and the I crave a burger. I can think of quite a few features you could add if the app develops further.Also, like the comment below about having a stranger over for dinner (not for dating purposes), it could involve a couple or someone visiting a new country who would appreciate a local showing them around and perhaps covering the dinner cost. Once the app learns your food preferences and interests, that could be quite exciting! There might already be an app that does this; I’m not sure. Swiping left and right on both food likes / dislikes and also general interests.

https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=kassner

I understand that and I’m all ears for suggestions!AFAIK I’m the only user, and our household doesn’t have issues with that. We also don’t have complete recipes, because we are pretty decent with cooking and coming up with stuff, so the main use is for idea generation and making some decision.Recipes like “meatballs with mashed potatoes”, if we don’t have cream to make the mash, you either exclude the cream, or you can just decide “meatballs” is good enough of a suggestion and make some spaghetti to go with it. The idea was to aid us getting over the indecision hill, and for that it has been pretty great.

https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=dotancohen

Noted, thank you.Singing up now...

https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=tourmalinetaco

> I would personally open a chatGPT session and tell what I have eaten today or this week and should suggest from the history when I need it.Honestly, an interesting idea. Finetune Llama on a bunch of nutrition info and it can help you find out what micros you’re missing and maybe even find recipes to help your macros

https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=dirkc

Nice app, I really like the idea! Let me know if you need help getting the Android app through the closed testing, happy to install and test!

https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=0b01

For me I like to use a tournament tracker.

https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=casta

I'm not organized at all! The deck of cards idea sounds much better than the spreadsheet, I might print them!For the "who can cook them" in the spreadsheet, I guess it's just a matter of what we're used to cook. I'm from Italy, she's from Malawi, I'm sure I could cook 'nsima and she could cook polenta.

Avatar
266
227
-17.6%
-21.6%
227
266
5.3%
2.2%
Relevance

I made an app for deciding with friends

08 Sep 2024 Android

I made and publisb an mobile app that makes your decisions fun and social. Also it keeps your decisions in mind and you can check them. Also It in play store. App Store : https://apps.apple.com/tr/app/picked-make-decision/id6475396... Play Store : https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.appoint.co...

Avatar
1
1
Relevance

I built a web app that will make your date evening fun

14 May 2024 Dating

Hello everyone, I built a simple web application that lets you play mini-games to decide who chooses what for your dates. Currently, I offer 3 different mini-games, but I plan to add more simple mini-games in the future. I look forward to your feedback on the application.

Avatar
2
2
Relevance

SWING - Connecting groups of likeminded friends for temporary events

29 May 2023 Social Network SaaS Social Media

SWING is a social mobile app that makes it easier for groups of friends to find like-minded people for spontaneous or planned get-togethers. The app name "SWING" is a slang term used to describe a social gathering with a balanced representation of genders.

The product launch received positive feedback, with users praising the idea as great and expressing their love for it. The product is described as simple, effective, intuitive, and user-friendly, delivering incredible results.

Avatar
73
3
33.3%
3
73
33.3%
Top