Hinge, the relationship app, is taking a different approach to online dating. Instead of encouraging casual dating, the Hinge app is designed to help individuals build meaningful relationships. With Hinge, users can upload both photos and short videos intended to help them strikeup two-way conversations that foster stronger connections and turn virtual connections into real romance.
The Challenge: Giving Users More Control Over Images and Video
To create a profile, Hinge users initially had to connect their Facebook and/or Instagram accounts to the app, which would import images to the users’ Hinge profiles. Hinge stored those images with a URL that expired after two months, unless the user logged into the app regularly. This aspect of the app was frustrating for users because the photos would become inaccessible for others to view.
| “We realized we needed to change the way we were dealing with media to make it more convenient for our users, and allow them to easily upload photos and videos directly from their devices and from their device camera,” said Tim MacGougan, vice president of Product at Hinge. “With plans to eventually enable users to upload short video clips, our development and product teams began to seek a new solution that offered more comprehensive media management capabilities so we could improve the user experience.” |
The Cloudinary Solution: A Perfect Match to Manage Images and Videos
Cloudinary was integral as Hinge began to develop the next version of its app. With Cloudinary, Hinge can now support direct uploads from users’ devices, resizing and cropping images on-the-fly to fit the graphic design, and optimizing the quality and format for improved performance.
| “What we love is that Cloudinary enables us to automatically optimize images without any trade-offs,” said MacGougan. “Now we can dynamically deliver high-quality images in the most efficient format and resolution using the least amount of bandwidth possible. This capability ensures that images look great and load quickly, significantly enhancing our users’ experience with the Hinge app. We were able to achieve this improvement while simplifying the code base, which enables our developers to be more productive.” |
Users also can upload 30-second videos to their profiles, a feature that sets Hinge apart from other dating apps.
| "Videos help our users share richer representations of themselves, building trust and rapport with one another through authenticity,” MacGougan added. "Implementing video is hard and we looked at several options to support user-uploaded videos, but Cloudinary’s simplicity, automation and ability to scale made the choice clear - and we haven’t lost sleep since. We are thrilled to highlight that 75 percent of videos are uploaded through Cloudinary, rather than streaming from social accounts, which is having a positive impact on performance and user engagement." |
The Results: Improved User Experience and Faster Downloads
People are more likely to abandon websites and apps if they experience slow load times or have difficulty viewing content. Dating apps are no different. While Hinge’s focus is creating a more genuine dating experience, its also needs to ensure that the app works smoothly and offers users capabilities other apps didn’t have. Cloudinary enabled Hinge to make its app more user friendly, improving the experience and, ultimately, continuing to keep modern romance real.
With the added flexibility, Hinge was able to reduce profile creation abandonment by 10 percent. This improvement can be attributed to the fact that users can now upload their favorite images directly from their devices, which is 60 percent faster than loading images from Facebook and/or Instagram.
| “Part of our decision to select Cloudinary was the platform’s simplicity,” said MacGougan. “With Cloudinary’s all-encompassing set of features implemented in the background, Hinge users can quickly and easily add images and videos to their profiles. Enabling users to perform manipulations on images - not just from social media, but also from their devices and camera - has accelerated the profile setup process, increasing user registration.” |
