Hinge takes swipe at hook-up apps

"Swiping is an addictive game designed to keep you single. Hinge isn't playing anymore," declares Justin McLeod, founder and chief executive of the Hinge dating app (hinge.co) that wants to help you find a relationship rather than a hook-up.

The newly revamped app is set to relaunch this week with a focus on “relationship-oriented dating” unlike some apps McLeod won’t stoop to mentioning (so Tinder, then?). He says the Hinge team has spent the past nine months redesigning both the interface and business model.

Swiping left has left the building and so too has the freemium model that apparently encouraged the kind of power users that swiped on everything and gave dating apps a bad name. What you pay for is ostensibly an app that encourages more genuine interactions: if you comment on a user profile, a chat window opens and the conversation begins.