What do dating apps have to do with health and fitness? Last month, that would have been a hard question to answer, but two news bites this week suggest there are few different ways two should get together.
Today, a new app called Sweatt launched in the iOS app store. The app is Tinder for fitness junkies. Users fill out a profile that includes photos and basic information, but also asks “their two top fitness activities, favorite time of day to work out, average number of workouts per week and preferred ‘fuel’” according to the company’s press release.
"Fitness is so much more than the time we spend working out,” founder Dan Ilani said in a statement. “Our commitment to fitness dictates so many of the choices we make on a daily basis. Chances of compatibility are heightened when you choose to date people with shared interests, lifestyles and mindsets. People have developed this love/hate relationship with dating apps because while they are a great platform to connect, they are also filled with people who aren't serious and just aren't good matches. Instead of making life easier, they often feel like they create more disappointment. Sweatt solves that problem by bringing together a community of like-minded people.”
If nothing else, Sweatt highlights the degree to which more traditional health and fitness apps have elevated the roll of social sharing in exercise. The app’s premise is predicated on having users who consider fitness to be such a big part of their identity that they want it to be the primary way they connect with potential partners.
The other bit of dating app news is more on the “health” side of “health and fitness”. In the UK, the NHS has partnered with Tinder itself to use the app to promote organ donation. Users can put a special logo on their profile. Anyone who swipes right on profiles with the logo will get a message and a link to the NHS Organ Donor Registry. The message? “If only it was that easy for those in need of a life saving organ to find a match.”
On the other hand, dating apps that bring in health information need to be as careful as any other health app. As a recent Buzzfeed piece reported, HZone, a dating app for HIV-positive people, suffered a security breach that affected as many as 5,000 users.
