Evolution of Dating Pro’s mobile app

Mobile version has always been an important part of the Dating Pro script add-ons catalogue. Mobile version is a supplement to the website that contains the most important features like viewing profiles and messaging, etc. It opens when visitors access a site from their mobile devices, and it is basically a miniature dating website.

This is an example of a dating site’s mobile version: https://soulcompanion.net/m/

When mobile applications started to grow popular, we decided to create mobile apps based on this mobile version of the site, with the help of a popular cross-platform framework. This way, we had two hybrid apps, one for the Android, and the other one for the iOS platform.

This is the list of features that are available in the hybrid apps:

-Landing page with random members` photos
-Sign up form
-Login form
-Personal profile page
-Search form and search results
-Member profile pages and photos
-Wall posts
-Mailbox
-Yes or No Ratings game
-Photo gallery
-Site news
-Multiple languages support

The colour scheme and the logotype of the app can be easily changed to match the customer’s brand.

The hybrid apps did not meet all of our requirements, though. So we decided to build native apps that would be able to interact with and take advantage of the operating system of the mobile device. It includes the use of a camera, GPS module, Push notifications, and many other opportunities.

This is what the very first (beta) version of our Android app looked like:

This is what it looks now, after the re-design:

We are by no means finished here, and we continuously improve the looks and the functionality of the Android app. Next on our plan of improvements is the in-app billing feature, along with the other improvements.

It took us about 3 months before we were able to deliver the native application to our first customer. These are the features that are part of the app’s functionality now:

- Sign up and sign in
- Social sign-on
- Search
- Personal profile
- View other people`s profiles
- Multiple languages support
- LikeMe photo rating
- Menu indicators
- Friends list and friends requests
- Instant messenger (one-on-one communication)
- Report user
- List of paid services
- Stripe payment system
- Kisses
- Guests
- Nearest users + GPS location
- Virtual gifts
- File exchange
- Video chat
- IM chat emojis

Emmanuel Okeke is one of our first customers who use the native Android app. Mr. Okeke’s app has made it into the list of the most popular dating apps in Nigeria. Read an interview with Emmanuel where we discussed his dating service called Friendite.com in the Dating Pro blog.

We’ll be glad to hear your thoughts and improvement ideas.