Are you—much like, oh, IDK, pretty much everyone these days—getting seriously tired of the dating app game? Have one too many horrible Hinge dates completely obliterated your faith in your own ability to select a compatible partner from the sea of potential matches out there? Hi, meet SciMatch, the AI-powered dating app that claims to replace all the legwork of crafting a profile and trying to suss out whether or not you vibe based on someone’s probably lackluster Tinder bio with a selfie. That’s right, just snap a pic of your cute little mug and SciMatch will tell you who’s really worth your time.
Skeptical? Same, hence why I just had to try it out and tell you how it went. Here’s the lowdown.
What SciMatch Does
The premise here is that the true mark of compatibility between you and a potential partner is all in...your faces. SciMatch’s face-reading algorithm—trained on a database of millions of facial characteristics associated with specific personality types—can analyze, for free, a quick scan of your face and identify your “character quirks.” It then uses those to spin out a handy bio for your dating profile. You can also ask it to analyze photos of any of your matches to gain insight into their character and how compatible you’d be.
Like most apps, SciMatch also has a few premium (aka you have to pay for them, from $9 per week to $125 for six months) features. Perhaps the most interesting: Upload a photo of your celebrity crush andSciMatch will match you with someone who looks like them.
What SciMatch Is Like
Based on my face and face alone, I quickly learned that I’m nurturing and attentive, always making sure my loved ones feel cherished and supported. I prioritize my relationships and go above and beyond to create deep and meaningful connections with others. All of which...is actually pretty accurate. At least in terms of any longer-term relationships I’ve had. And the prewritten bio even scored me a few Likes.
In general, I found SciMatch’s dating pool to be way smaller than other apps’, although it did include some new faces I don’t constantly run into on my usual go-tos. Still, there was some glitchiness to the interface, and the overall experience, which lacked a level of polish, was definitely giving “niche dating app” vibes. And the more I swiped, the more I realized that half the folks I encountered had ditched their AI-generated personality assessments in favor of crafting their own bios. Which begged the question: What is the point?
What’s in It For You?
With the exception of the fun celebrity crush feature, the SciMatch experience doesn’t feel that different from what you’re used to on mainstream dating apps. So if you’re already burned out and tight on time or money, I’d say you could skip it. But if you do have the bandwidth and you’re interested in the facial structure equals personality thing (which, per SciMatch, is based on real research), it’s worth trying to possibly find some unique matches.
