For centuries, people who believe in astrology have looked to the stars for guidance, including on what to look for in a mate. Align, the dating app based on astrological signs, is designed to appeal to people who are looking for deeper online connections without spending ages filling out questionnaires. Helen Grossman and Aliza Kelly Faragher, the two creators of the app, were tired of feeling disconnected from other online daters and thought “these soulless swipes were going nowhere.”
They realized people still took astrological signs into consideration when deciding whom to date, but there was no app designed to focus on this aspect of people’s lives. So they decided to develop an app for that. “Over 45 million millennials believe in astrology,” Aliza says. Hence, Align. The app just finished its iOS beta in LA, and today expanded to New York and San Francisco.
It’s easy to use; login with Facebook and enter your birthdate. The app then pulls together a list of sign-specific adjectives, and you pick the six traits that most accurately describe you. These traits show up on your profile, and Align’s algorithm uses them to match you with other users.
Each day the app presents constellations of five unique matches that make you the center of your own universe, so to speak. By looking at the constellation, you can tell how compatible you are with each match; the bigger the profile pic in the constellation, the better the match. Colors are important too; yellow signifies an air sign, while green covers earth, for example, giving you an idea of the person’s astrological inclinations at a glance.
If broad scope and a hot pic aren’t enough, you can check the compatibility report. If people “align” they get a little notification and can privately message each other through a chat option in the app. If you’re not feeling anyone, the constellation changes at midnight, and you’ll have five new options.
Helen made a good point about Align in the company press release; “It doesn’t follow the tired hot-or-not model of other dating apps.” The idea is to connect users in ways that aren’t so superficial. To that end, there are no IAPs; Align is totally free on the iOS store.
