Czech Pinkilin wants to change the world of dating

It is an interesting Czech project with global ambitions new dating app Pinkilin. Behind it are two young people from Brno, who found out firsthand how difficult it can be to meet girls at university. Therefore, they began to dream of a mobile application that would make it easier for them to approach girls in the immediate vicinity. 

Pinkilin or when Tinder is not enough

When I talked about the app with its author Michael Živěla, I asked him why he was trying so hard to get "some new Tinder" on the market. Aren't there enough dating apps already? It turned out that Michael heard this question regularly, and he had an answer ready. Pinkilin is said to be about speed and instant interaction that Tinder cannot offer. The motto of the application, which reads "date now, doubt later", says it all.

Pinkilin is designed to get you familiar in no time. A model situation for using the application looks like you are sitting somewhere in a bar or club and want to get to know each other quickly. So, open the application and after clicking on the radar icon, the display will show you (from a man's point of view) girls located in the vicinity, while in the application settings you can of course set the age range in which the application should search. It is then possible to either reject the found girl and move on to the next one, or send her an invitation to get to know her.

As soon as the girl receives the invitation (the phone notifies her about it with a push notification), she can accept or reject it. If he accepts the invitation, an electronic conversation can begin immediately, and there is nothing to prevent the potential couple from arranging a meeting. Invitations are only valid for 100 minutes after they are sent, which forces users to react as quickly as possible.

In this way, Pinkilin makes it easier to take that first step in the form of contacting a counterpart. As part of the communication, it is possible to use a classic IM conversation, you have the option to send your location with a single tap, and you can also send photos within the chat.

"Love database"

When an invitation is accepted, the counterpart appears on a special timeline called Pinkiline, which is the app's second key feature. In addition to being a dating tool, Pinkilin is also a kind of "love database". All your acquaintances are recorded on the Pinkiline axis, so you have a perfect overview of when, where, how and with whom you met.

Pinkiline offers a variety of different customizations. You can add a phone number, a personal note, star rating and photos to each person on the axis. In addition, people who do not use the application can also be manually added anywhere on the axis. You can thus create a real database of your relationships from the application, which can be used for your own use, but can also be shared.

Sharing takes place via the classic system menu, so you can send an overview of your acquaintances in the form of an impressive picture of the axis via any application that allows sending images. For practical reasons, the appearance of the shared axis can be easily "censored" by blurring or completely removing individual users from the axis.

Emphasis on security and originality of the environment

Speaking of practical matters, you will surely be pleased that the developers have taken care of the proper security of the application. Data should be safe on the server and on the phone, where it can be locked using a PIN and Touch ID, which is the case with an app with content this kind of thing very welcome.

As for the application environment, the developers followed the path of maximum originality. Pinkilin does not borrow any elements we know from iOS or Android and goes its own way. Everything is colorful and customizable. This way you really win with the application, which more playful users will appreciate. However, more conservative people may find Pinkilin a bit overpriced and unintuitive due to its own controls and mechanisms.

Founders of Pinkilin – Daniel Habarta and Michael Živěla

Business model and support

Of course, the authors of the application have to make a living, so Pinkilin also has its own business model. You can download the app for free, but the free version has its limitations. You'll be able to send five invites in 24 hours without paying, with the limit resetting at midnight. The limitation also applies to the number of photos in the medallions of your acquaintances, which is set at ten.

If you want to get rid of these restrictions, you will either have to pay a one-time fee of one euro per invitation, or pay for an annual premium membership. This will cost you less than €60 and thanks to it you will have 30 invitations per day and space for 30 photos for each of your acquaintances. Various options for customizing your Pinkiline axis and other small gadgets will also be added to the application, which will also be available for purchase.

Good idea, but still far from success

Pinkilin is undoubtedly an interesting app that can help many people overcome their fear and shyness in dating. But in order for Pinkilin to work according to the ideas of creators and users, it will have to spread among a decent circle of users. The goal of the application is to introduce you to users from the immediate vicinity, which will only work when the application is widespread enough that there will be some users in the immediate vicinity.

The creation of a version for Android could certainly help the potential expansion among a larger circle of people. To develop an application for the most widespread mobile platform, the authors of Pinkilin are currently collecting funds within the framework campaigns on HitHit. At the moment, less than 35 of the necessary 000 crowns have been selected for development, and there are 90 days left until the end of the crowdfunding campaign.

But even if the developers manage to come up with an application for Android in the foreseeable future, they have an extremely difficult task ahead of them. The market for mobile apps is really tight, and a good idea or its quality execution is usually not enough to succeed. This is because Pinkilin is entering a field that is already occupied by big players, such as the already mentioned Tinder, and users usually don't move in droves. For applications of a similar type, rather than objective quality, the user base decides, which is quite logical. However, the authors of the application do not give up the fight in advance and want to acquire users primarily by promoting the application in the country as part of various parties directly in bars and clubs. From them, awareness of the application should spread further. 

So let's not be pessimistic and give the application at least a chance. On an iPhone, the application will run optimally on an iPhone 5 or newer, and you will need at least iOS 8. At launch, the application will be available in Czech and English. Localizations into several other world languages ​​are also being prepared. If you are interested in Pinkilin, download it for free from the App Store.

Discussion of the article

[Donald]

A model's situation when I'm sitting in a bar and in the application I'm looking for which of the ladies present is available for dating... so that I can then send her an electronic request for a date... :D :D :D
Well, that's pure despair.
The first thing that comes to mind is "stronger dog m***", with or without the application.

[Michael Živela]

Hello, thank you for your response. There may also be girls sitting in a bar 500m from you or in a rival club and you don't know about them. You can get to know them through Pinkilin.

[Petr Krobot]

Which is still infantile to meet a lady in a competition club through an app when I can approach one in person where I am.

Not that I wouldn't wish it for you, but Tinder has already shown that this is not the way to go, and it's better to get to know each other in person than to play with photos and chat endlessly. A lot of people have a profile on a dating site, but few actively use it, let alone actively meet people. Most of my friends consider it an absolute waste of time ;-)

These Tinder-type dating sites are good for one thing, however, if you want to fuck, it's usually not a problem, either he says no or yes and it's down to business...

[Michal]

So I tried - incredibly annoying process of setting up and td, quite an infaltile environment and the result of 0 people in your area.
This has no chance of success.

[Michael Živela]

Hello, thank you for your response. Some information is needed for such an application. Dating couldn't work without them. With the design, we wanted to avoid traditional applications, but we understand that it will not suit everyone. As for the people around. The distance depends on how many users are around you. We released the app to the world this afternoon. Give us time :).

[Michal]

Yes, the environment is unconventional and the application works differently - it doesn't crash or anything.
Well, I'll download it in maybe a month - I was quite curious how it would work. ;)

[Ludek Roleček]

It can be seen that the app was developed by "young people who found out first hand how difficult dating can be in college".

The idea that girls/women just hook up, willing to get to know each other immediately, is quite naive these days. The result will be (as in almost every such "dating") 97% men and 3% women. Men will therefore have a set distance for getting to know each other at 100 km and will send a message to every woman they happen to discover. The result for women will be that within an hour of signing up, each of them will receive about 500 messages from men who think that the girl will go to bed with them 10 minutes after writing the first message. I.e. the woman closes the app and never opens it again.

Anyway, I wish the authors the best of luck.

[Michael Živela]

Hello, thank you for your response. Of course, there is such a risk, but we want to promote the application in the biggest clubs in the Czech Republic, so that as many users as possible are in one place. Your distance scenario cannot happen because the distance cannot be set. We have an algorithm that determines the distance based on the number of people around. Therefore, we never get more than 10 km. The idea is to show people hundreds of meters away from your location. There is no danger of 500 invitations per day. Thank you

[jardako]

I also tried to install the app out of interest. I deleted it in about a minute. It's as Michal writes - registration and setting up is horribly long. I didn't even get to the end, and I was interested in how it worked, not that I wanted to get acquainted quickly (I would have less patience). You need to simplify it A LOT, really a lot. But at the same time, I can't think of why people should use it either...

[Michael Živela]

Hello, thank you for your opinion. Of course we are sorry, but there is information that we cannot get even from FB. The password is extra because the content can be sensitive and we want to protect users and prevent data leakage. There are 2 registration screens and in the case of FB they are pre-filled, so we don't find it tedious. But thanks for the insights.

[Jiří Brož]

I never understood all these apps, but against my taste… I wish the developers a lot of success.

[Michael Živela]

Thanks, we're just trying to speed dating. More eyes, more they see.

PS: Thanks for the marketing tagline idea. Yes.

[Michal]

Also about the relationship database - who would willingly share that? After all, when a young lady sees that he had 50 girls here and there, she won't even answer you.
But sending it to friends might be interesting for certain people - unless they find that certain ladies match them ;)

[Michael Živela]

It's primarily for those friends. We came up with it in a bar with a beer, where we were showing each other who had what summer :))

[Jiří Brož]

It's still only summer ☺️?? I wish you good luck. ?

[Mirohrob]

Fingers crossed, but you won't get a woman through an application :-)

[Michael Živela]

Hello, thank you.

[Lukáš]

That UI is disgusting

[at]

Another application, for the success of which (mass use) it is necessary that everyone has it installed. In the age of tinder etc, I can't imagine how you're going to convince people to download it to their phone. And if you manage to do it by chance, after 2 minutes the application will turn off, because no one else will be in it. Enjoy.

[Hater]

LOL another app is absolutely useless :D I'm not surprised at all that they couldn't meet :D

[DusanK]

I haven't tried the application yet, but according to the promo video, it looks very good in terms of design and functionality. I wish you much success.