Desti, the dating and social application designed to allow users to filter potential matches based on date destinations, announced today its official launch in Austin, Texas. Desti provides users a first-of-its-kind dating app experience unlike any other platforms on the market by not only saving users from the dreaded "small talk" of existing dating apps, but also by allowing potential matches to identify where and when they plan to meet up in their city.
"It's been about 10 years since dating apps like Tinder and Bumble emerged,'' said John Taylor, CEO of Desti. "In that time the landscape of social media has evolved but they haven't as much. We feel that Desti creates a new lane and is positioned for this generation of users."
Desti's innovative technology gives users control of their own experience by letting them filter who they see based on where they want to go, while simultaneously allowing users to discover hundreds of local businesses through engaging Desti videos. In an effort to drive people to start conversations with other users, Desti has removed the "send like'' feature. By removing the feature to only "like'' people and never start a conversation with them, Desti is on a mission to save users time and energy by avoiding the small talk and rather, starting a natural social conversation.
"When developing Desti, our goal was to create a distinctive user experience that offered at least 10 times more efficiency than competitors," said Nick Dominguez, COO and Lead Designer/Developer of Desti. "We decided to bet on short form video being the future and provide people a way to communicate with far less friction. If you take a look at any woman's dating app inbox it's not hard to see the issue. I looked to books I read like Zero to One by Peter Thiel for capitalizing on the last movers advantage."
Desti was created with single women's best interest in mind. Managing any current dating app is a full time job, and between drowning in small talk, boring dead-end conversations, terrible one-liners, and flakey matches that never go anywhere, Desti's founders saw there was clear friction in communication. Desti wants to bridge the gap between matching with someone and never conversing with them, and help foster real relationships.
"Desti's mission to shift online dating towards in-person dating is a change we can all get behind," said Julia Chesbrough, designer at Desti and former designer at Hinge. "When I heard that Desti wanted to bring people off of their phones and into the real world, pushing people to meet their matches in real life, I was really excited. Having worked in the dating app industry before, I knew just how difficult it was to motivate people to get outside their comfort zones and onto a date."
Desti launched on the App Store on July 31, 2022 for all smartphone users in the Austin area on iOS.