Life

OkCupid's New App Feature Is A Total Game-Changer

I make no secret of how much I love OkCupid. But just when I thought it couldn't get any better, the marvelous matchmaking folks behind the site went and made it even better by making OkCupid App's compatibility feature more transparent. Before, it would feature a percentage categorizing the likelihood of you and another person getting along as a match, without any sort of specifics as to what went into that percentage. Yes, you knew that the questions you answered definitely factored in, and if you wanted you could read another person's responses to those questions, but now it's 10 times easier.

OkCupid has taken that percentage and broken it down into a few key categories to help you determine how the two of you fare when comparing factors that often determine most how two people will get along. And to top it off, they're giving you some personality traits based on those percentages to let you know which characteristics best describe the person you're looking at.

During peak online dating season, this new app upgrade may just save you time and prevent a first-date horror story or two. Yeah, it's a bit of a dating app game-changer. Here's what you need to know:

1. You Can Learn The Specifics On Your Compatible Matches

When looking at someone's profile on OkCupid, scrolling down to the bottom will show you match percentages based on decisive topics, compatibility-wise. Swiping from right to left, you can find how similar the two of you are based on your lifestyle, religious beliefs, sexual preferences, and ethics.

There's one caveat though: OkCupid will only unlock the specific percentages for these categories if you answer the questions it asks pertaining to these categories. I had to go back and answer a few more questions to unlock the specifics, but it has really helped to clue me into who I should be messaging. Thumbs up for you, OkCupid.

2. You'll Discover More Quickly Which Qualities Are Important To Them

On top of revealing percentages for how you two match up on the important stuff, OkCupid also now features prevalent and not so prevalent characteristics of your potential match right underneath these stats. Some of the personality traits the app will clue you into include whether a person is liberal or conservative, messy or neat, and dominant or passive.

It's a pretty quick way to be able to tell whether your values match up, without having to dig through their compatibility responses for the answer.

3. You Can Create More Significant Conversation Starters

OkCupid has always made it easy for their users to start a conversation with a potential match. I mean hello, there's a whole profile of potential material for you to work off of. But if someone is still operating in the Tinder-sphere, and is skimpy with their bio deets, you can us these new stats and personality traits as your opener. Better yet, if you want to get down to meaningful conversation off the bat, you can also use these facts to help form a new connection.

Take this guy, for instance. We match up pretty well when it comes to our ethical beliefs, and he's outgoing, which most likely means he's fun to talk to. If I wanted, I could open up asking him about his spirituality, since it seems to be very important to him, and discuss the important part spirituality plays in my life. Boom, solid, meaningful connection.

4. You May Even Prevent The Awkwardness Of A Bad Date

If you're looking to go on dates with people you actually get along with (which I can safely assume is most of us) then these new features will definitely save you time. If someone who is "drug-friendly" or "sex-driven" isn't your thing, you'll find out instantly how these characteristics factor on the importance scale with them, despite your high match percentage. I like a confident and artsy guy as much as the next person, but the "kinky" attribute is a little bit of a red flag for me, personally. I'm not one to judge someone's sexual preferences, but if kink is that important that it's number two on his top three characteristics, I may want to pass on this one.

5. Or Find What You're Looking For More Quickly

One of my biggest arguments against dating sites and apps has always been that unlimited options often makes it harder to find what you're actually looking for. Sure, it's nice to be able to pick, but finding someone that works for you becomes a lot more daunting. OkCupid's newest features are making that just a tad bit easier. By centering in on the things that matter most to its users, you can now figure out within a two-second glance of someone's profile whether you're likely to get along. And once you determine that your personalities match up and you agree on key topics most important to you, you can finally invest your time in a person without feeling like it may be a waste later on. For instance, when I look at the guy above, I can tell we're not only compatible dating-wise, but he has a lot of the characteristics I want in someone else.

Whether you will actually find what you're looking for remains to be seen, but at least you can take solace in the fact that it's just a tiny bit easier.

Want more of Bustle's Sex and Relationships coverage? Check out our new podcast, I Want It That Way, which delves into the difficult and downright dirty parts of a relationship, and find more on our Soundcloud page.

Images: Fotolia; OkCupid