By Radhika Chauhan
A new dating app now lets’s one choose their romantic partners by the sound of their voice. Unlike other apps which require users to have written bios and attractive pictures for their profiles, the app called Waving asks its users to post voice notes instead. “Seeing the current dating application market and realizing that this would not be evolving in the near future, I decided to create a unique and revolutionary dating application: Waving. The design of Waving, including a real-time audio visualizer, was imagined in order to complete this dating app’s experience,” says Ziph0n, the creator of the app.
Voice attractiveness: Not a new concept
Although a new and intriguing approach towards speed dating, it is not the first time when variations in pitch and volume of human voice have been studied to draw significant outcomes. Studies suggest that women are naturally inclined towards men with a deeper voice, as it suggests high testosterone levels, an indication of virility and strength, thus trigging the primal instincts of the belief that the man can provide a stable and safe home for the future offspring. Consequently, men tend to lean towards women with a high-pitched voice as it signals high estrogen levels, signalling fertility and youth, thus making her capable of better child rearing.
As a matter of fact, a recent study conducted in Tanzania by Dr Coren Apicella, a biological anthropologist at Harvard University also offered some intriguing results. The study played two versions of the same voice to the Hazda people, a remote tribe of hunters and gatherers in Tanzania. Different recordings were played for men and women to gather some insight about what factors triggered potential partner preferences. While men preferred to marry females with a high-pitched voice, they also thought that women with deeper voice were better hunters as well. Women showed a similar preference for men with deeper voices, as a better hunter was the obvious choice when it came to selecting a partner in marriage. Only exceptions to the preference were the women who were breastfeeding, they thought that men with higher pitched voices were more attractive as they hinted towards a more caring nature.
Social behaviours in dating
Taking a cue from these studies, Waving lets its users record their voices which then serves as the user profile. Users can set preferences about the gender, age range, and minimum geographic distances. The app follows the standard right swipe/left swipe feature and also includes an option of sending a chat request in case one can’t wait to get matched with the potential matches. Only available for iOs, Waving would soon expand to other platforms.
While being one of its kind in the online dating scene, Waving is not the only app that uses human behaviour and preferences as a basis for influencing human interactions. Apps like Tinder, Happn, Bumble also use parameters like geographic location, pictures, self-introduction to influence people to make the choice in choosing a romantic partner. With countless apps on the market which offer people countless choices catering to their every preference, technology may be influencing human interaction more than one would like to believe.
New age dating
From social media events to dating apps, when there is a facility of sorting through multitudes of people from the comforts of your screen, it becomes easy to give in to one’s basic primal instincts. There is now no need to put an initial effort in trying to getting to talk to a person, let alone spending time in making that very first somewhat awkward conversation. Technology takes away the awkwardness, and the user is free to create whatever persona they have in mind: Technology-1, Reality-0. There is nothing left then to wonder why more and more dating apps are cropping up by the hour. After all, when almost everything else can be done at a tap on your screen, could the possibility of eternal romance be far behind.
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