Meet LoveJack, the dating app designed for users to find love using just five words

Summary

As Kevin Malone from “The Office” once said, “Why waste time say lot word when few word do trick?” For Julia LeStage and Lisa Le, the creators of a new dating app called LoveJack, finding love online doesn’t have to feel like filling out a mountain of paperwork. Sometimes, all you need are a few carefully chosen words to spark a connection. LoveJack profiles look like those on other blind dating apps, but with a twist. Instead of blurred or hidden profiles, users see five words chosen by potential matches. When users press and hold on their phone screens (the app doesn’t use swiping mechanics), profile pictures are then revealed. The five words can be anything from personal traits and jokes to current feelings or even random details, such as the ingredients in their lunch sandwich— an entertaining tactic that we saw one beta user try during our testing. The idea is that the five-word constraint allows users to be creative while also challenging them to be concise and clever, encouraging more witty conversations and moving away from mundane questions like “What do you do for a living?” or overused pickup lines. LeStage and Le decided to create LoveJack after being frustrated with the way online dating profiles often resemble job resumes—complete with posed photos, filters, and carefully crafted bios that can feel exaggerated. “This is not LinkedIn. Where has the fun gone?” LeStage told TechCrunch, reflecting a sentiment shared by many online daters, which may explain why dating giants like Tinder have faced challenges in recent quarters. LeStage got the idea while working as a judge for the Webby Awards, which notoriously limits winners to five-word speeches. The app also takes inspiration from The New York Times’ popular Wordle game. She shared with us that when she re-entered the dating scene, apps sucked the fun out of the experience, noting that traditional platforms emphasize superficial judgments based on appearance. So she decided to use the five-word challeng...