Case study · Dating

Dating that starts with who you are, not a photo.

A matching app built on avatars, questions and preferences, with discovery toggles, chat and a full admin for questions, interests and reports.
Client
STUMBLE
Sector
Dating
What we built
Matching app for iOS and Android, API with matching and chat, admin.
Platform
Flutter app, NestJS API with sockets, Next.js admin.

In short

Stumble asks people to build an avatar and answer the bare minimum before they see anyone, then matches on demographics and preferences rather than a camera roll. Chat opens after a match, and an admin controls the question bank, interests, avatars, reports and analytics.

The brief

Make people say something before they show something.

The brief turned the usual dating app inside out: avatars instead of photos first, questions before browsing, and a match before any chat.

What had to be true

  • Avatar first

    Create or select an avatar as the face of the profile.
  • Questions before browsing

    Bare minimum questions, demographics and partner preferences as a stepped onboarding.
  • Match, then talk

    Discovery and match toggles, chat only after a match.
  • Operator control

    Questions, interests, avatars, reports, FAQ and analytics managed in the admin.

What we did

We built the onboarding as the product.

Most of the design effort went into the steps before the first match.
01

Stepped onboarding

A custom stepper with sub steps for avatar, bare minimum questions, demographics and preferences.

Thoughtful by default.

02

Matching and chat

Discovery toggles, a match module in the API and sockets for chat once matched.

Conversation is earned.

03

Admin for the question bank

Operators edit questions, interests and avatars, and read reports and analytics.

The product evolves without releases.

What changed

A profile you had to think about.

What the app changes about the first impression.

Avatar

instead of a photo as the first impression

Stepped

questions and preferences before anyone is shown

Gated

chat opens only after a match

Technology

What this was built with.

Chosen to fit the problem and the team who owns it now.

01Mobile

  • Swift
  • Kotlin
  • Flutter
  • React Native

02Data and cloud

  • PostgreSQL
  • MySQL
  • MongoDB
  • AWS
  • Azure
  • Docker

Tell us what the business needs. We will tell you what to build first.

Schedule a free consultation and get a written recommendation, with costs, before you commit to anything.

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PROVEN RESULTS

4.7 / 5verified reviews on Google