How to Improve User Retention in Dating Apps With AI Face Animation
The COVID-19 pandemic played in favor of dating apps. Their usage skyrocketed as locked-down singles flocked there to find a partner or just hang out online with someone new. Now that the world is returning to normal, the common problems like keeping the users engaged and subscribed return as well. In this article, we will show how AI face animation can address some of the common reasons for churn.
How to improve user retention: nature of the beast
“Good churn exists, and it might be better than retaining a user”, said Devin Markell, Data Lead at Hinge.
What he meant was that if a person finds what they were looking for on your app, they will likely leave it. This also implies that the app did its job, leaving a user satisfied and likely to recommend the product to someone else. And if the relationship didn’t work out, that same user could come back and try again.
That being said, bad churn exists as well.
Some reasons for it have proven user retention strategies to address. For example, the imbalance between male and female users with the guys outnumbering the girls can be mitigated by making the signup paid for men. Pure did it, as a result, they have about a 60/40 male-to-female ratio. Compare this to Tinder, where the proportion is 75,8 to 24,2.
AI face animation could be a way to improve retention in many other cases.
How AI face animation works
The term “AI face animation” covers all kinds of augmented reality facial modifications done with the help of artificial intelligence. This can include face masks, face morphing, beautification, AR avatars, and more.
This is how it typically works. The system detects multitudes of points that form “landmarks” on the person’s face (e.g. nose, lips, or eyes) and places augmented reality effects over them. The more points the software tracks, the more precise the effect placement can be. However, this also means that the performance requirements and battery power usage grow proportionally.
Not all face tracking animation systems work with landmarks, though. Banuba Face AR SDK, for example, uses trained neural networks to “see” faces as another person would. As a result, it only needs to track 37 numbers: 30 facial models and 7 positions. This means that it works on smartphones starting from iPhone 6S and 80% of Android devices.
The core appeal of it is the ease of integration and decrease in time-to-market: building the augmented reality features from scratch could take months or even years while integrating a premade SDK could be done within a day.
Face in 3D animations are now quite common in dating apps. They help users look better online and make virtual dating more fun.
How to improve user retention: problems and solutions
Let’s go through some of the common problems of dating app user retention and show how face tracking animation can mitigate them.
Anonymity and security
The hookup culture is on the rise and is largely facilitated by dating apps. However, it also presents problems like stalking and leaking compromising photos and videos. In one of the extreme cases, a stalker found the victim by the reflection in her eyes.
This means providing safety and security options for customers can be a user retention strategy of its own.
This is where a AI face animation can come in handy. Face masks can ensure anonymity in spicy videos and pictures. Background replacement can hide the person’s apartment and make it harder to find them. And beautification features can even add glare to the eyes and hide the reflection.
You users will surely appreciate the heightened privacy and security.
Photo and video exchange
Some dating apps (e.g. Tinder) disallow sharing pictures and videos entirely. For others, like Zepeel or Pure, this is the core of their offering. In any case, the use of video chat has grown by 85% over the past year, so making it convenient and secure should be a part of a dating app’s user retention strategy.
Face tracking animation can improve the videos by adding cool filters or turning people into cartoon characters. Just like emojis, faces in 3D animations can improve the emotional connections between the interlocutors.
Video chat efficiency
Even with the pandemic restrictions being slowly lifted, 65% of the users who tried finding a partner through a video chat in a dating app intend to continue using this feature. This is why improving its engagement efficiency is a solid user retention strategy.
Augmented reality has been proven to do just that. It is already being used by almost 2.5 billion people and can make virtual dates more fun and memorable. Once the people are confident in their matches, the AR masks can be taken off. Thus your app will provide a place for both safety and intrigue.
Developers should also consider beautification. It is another popular aspect of the face in 3D animations that allows users to even out their skin tone, apply virtual makeup and hair color, remove eye bags, and do other things that make them look great on camera.
Conclusion
The dating app market is highly competitive, which means the developers need to proactively seek ways to remain relevant. AI face animation addresses a number of problems that plague everyone who seeks how to improve user retention: security, media exchange, or video chat efficiency.
