We all have a long list of the annoying things we hate, and now -- finally! -- we can use this information to find true love.
Hater is a brand new dating app(opens in a new tab) that matches you with others who can’t stand the very same things you can’t stand. It’s a delightful concept that lets you drop that idealized, perky version of yourself you’ve been putting in all your profiles and lets you show off your inner crank instead.
The app launches officially on February 8th but is now available in beta for iOS. (It will be available for Android this spring.) It offers you 3,000 hand-selected topics to weigh in on -- butt selfies, build the wall, slow walkers and tipping less than 15% are just a few. You simply swipe down to hate, up to love, left to dislike or right to like.
The app then matches you with people based on your mutual distastes and other factors like location. Starting conversations should be easy, since you hate the same things, but just in case, there’s a built-in icebreaker game that poses a question and has you both fill in the blank.
This breath of fresh air was created by Brendan Alper, who left his job at Goldman Sachs to become a comedian and first had the idea as a joke. But he realized it would actually be a great real-life app, discovered there were some studies that backed up his intuition and now he’s probably going to be a bazillionaire.
They’ve been testing the app since December in New York and had a very positive response. They said the top three most commonly hated topics so far are the presidential election of 2016 (shocker!), bad sidewalk etiquette (something any NYC resident can rant about for hours) and drain hair (the worst). As for the most loved topics: my mom, the ocean, guacamole. Hard to argue with any of those.
One thing they're careful to stress is that even though Haters centers around, well, hate, they’re not actually encouraging negative behavior. They've been carefully curating the topics themselves, and they’ve got a one-strike policy for any anyone who acts in a way you’d want to swipe down on. They haven’t had to ban anyone yet, so maybe getting to vent about “V-necks” and “Vladimir Putin” brings out our best selves.
In any case, this seems like an app custom-designed for these unpredictable times. Each day brings so many new things to hate, and in a time when more than ever we need someone to love.
