Halfeet-Dating,Meet,Chat new people nearby

Wikipedia.org states “Social media refers to the means of interactions among people in which they create, share, and exchange information and ideas in virtual communities and networks.”

There is no platform which epitomizes the “sharing and exchanging” part of social media more than mobile dating apps. Halfeet, created by Yuying Ziao from Beijing, China, is a new entry onto the social dating scene promising to get people of the same likes and dislikes, within relatively close proximities, chatting and intermingling. Halfeet worked extremely well and fast, getting the user on the platform and in communication with others looking for the same thing.

I ran a couple of “test” profiles to see how the system worked, and whether being female looking for eligible men or vice versa made any significant difference. The first test I ran was as a female. I figured it would be easiest since I am one, and I used my actual personal characteristic (less the picture) to fill out the profile information. The set up is very quick, with a couple of quirky or weird questions asked (Blood type, huh?). Within seconds I had men popping into the chat room looking to hook up. I don’t think the men actually looked at my profile, because some were very young. I wanted to tell a couple that I had boots older than they were, but I figured why bother. The “Location” part of the app wasn’t too accurate as I was being chatted with from all over the world; the furthest one was a guy who was 12,000 Kms away, defeating the idea of meeting someone “close by”.

The second test I ran was entering the platform as a mid 30’s guy, looking for women. The biggest difference was the women on the platform weren’t as quick to “chat” with me. The women who did enter into the chat room were quite a bit shyer and I think sincerely looking to meet someone they could have a conversation with, or perhaps I hadn’t let enough time elapse for them to show their brazenness.

There are a couple of idiosyncrasies with the app. The “Chat” window is a little cumbersome with the answers to the questions going to the top of the dialogue box, rather than flowing like a real text conversation. There is also voice interaction available which I found to be a wee bit creepy. I set up two profiles neither of which were true, so I figure most of the profiles are most likely false and there is no way to remove the profiles from the system, so let the buyer beware. The grammar in the app could also use a little fine tuning. The phrase “Peoples” is awkward, and the friends following phrase “You have not followed about a friend (sic), and follow people nearby now!) needs work.

What are my final thoughts on the app? We really haven’t evolved too far from the school playground as “little” boys are still way too quick to show off their “bits”. And, people have dropped their inhibitions far too much, leaving this social media tainted with a huge ICK factor.