What is monster match?

“I’ve never used a dating app, and I never want to.” “I use dating apps all the time.” Do either of these describe you?

It may surprise you, but even if you don’t ever use a dating app, the way they work still affects your life in huge ways. And if you use them all the time, there’s still lots you don’t know about them.

MonsterMatch is a chance to see a dating app without actually using one. You might have a partner, or you might not be looking for one. MonsterMatch is dating with fake monsters, not people, so you have nothing to worry about—using a fake app with fake profiles doesn’t say anything about you, other than you’re a smart and curious person who likes to learn more about technology.

But even if you use dating apps a lot, it’s impossible to use them enough to learn how they work for everyone. Some apps have millions of users every day. Everyone comes from different backgrounds and has different dating preferences. Your experience can be true, but it isn’t going to be representative, nearly ever, of the experience of the average user in the app.

MonsterMatch tries to scale down the sheer size of dating apps so that they’re easier to understand. Instead of millions of users, there’s just you, a real human being, and 100 imaginary monster profiles. As you swipe right (to like) and left (to dislike) profiles, we’ll show you how the next profile you’ll see is affected. You’ll get to know exactly what profiles you get—and miss out on—over the course of a few dozen swipes. All without actually having to go on any dates, talk to people, or put yourself out there.