Esha Chaudhuri writes on the evolution of present-day dating examining flutrr’s attempt at breaking language barriers
As the concept of ‘dating’ over the years has transformed considerably, making a digitised access point for the millennials and Genz, unleashing a new world of ‘dating apps’. These dating apps or mobile applications that cater to interested users, have customised and built their applications suitably adapting to the needs and wants of its audience. Such is the case of flutrr, a dating forum backed by The Times of India is India’s first Vernacular dating app. In a dialogue with Sunday Shillong, Brand Controller at flutrr, Leah Norimbi Cheran Momin, discloses, “In about a year’s time, we have clocked more than 600K downloads and have an active user base of more than 350K youth.”
Over the years, dating as a social activity, and concept has pushed the envelope in many ways, and almost revolutionised with the introduction of mobile ‘dating apps’. These mobile applications, popular among the millennial generation and the GenZ, are user friendly, whereby one creates a profile, stating one’s interests in life, likes and dislikes along with ‘aesthetic’ photographs of themselves. This is followed by the customary ‘right swipe’ indicative of liking the profile or a ‘left swipe’ for a rejection. In case of a right swipe on both sides of the users, it’s declared ‘a match’ after which the two can begin conversing on their chat box.
A shift from the traditional form of dating or prospect of meeting new people through friends, social circles, or even in places such as libraries, parks and promenades, these apps make for a fairly private act of swiping and taking the business forward.
Inclusive in their outlook and attracting a wide range of audience, these apps cater to the wants and needs of seeking serious or casual relationships. Exploring what one seeks out of relationships and the kind of relationships too, as well as going beyond the heteronormative standards of a cis man and cis woman. Sexualities and orientations are acknowledged and given their due space to thrive.
Asking Momin about her views on modern dating and the usage of apps, she acknowledges the claim by stating “Dating is an ecosystem that is constantly evolving. The advent of online dating apps have made things much more dynamic.”
“Traditional dating has its own charm, I won’t lie, especially for someone who has a soft spot for doing things in the old and venerated ways. However, times are changing faster than we had imagined, which is resulting in us getting busier to keep up with the changes. In the age of the internet, convenience is important and that is exactly what swiping gives us. After matching, people can always meet up at the parks, libraries and cafes.” she adds.
Many sides to online dating
As the domain of dating has made headways, so have its needs. Based on the users in India that are multiethnic and multilingual, flutrr’s unique selling proposition is its incorporation of local languages. “Flutrr aims at this huge non-English speaking GenZ audience. We launched in 2 languages, Hindi and Bengali in Dec 2021, but right before Valentine’s Day in 2023, we simultaneously rolled out 11 more Indian languages.” informs Momin.
In India, language has been a barrier since English is not the most widely spoken language especially crossing over to two tier cities, and many in parts of the South and Northeast don’t speak Hindi either. Inclusion of languages in the app has been a potent move towards increasing its appeal and attraction, and large numbers of users.
Based on her own experience, Momin shares, “I come from Tura, which is a very small town in Meghalaya and I often felt that people from NE were mostly not included in mainstream conversations and they were largely underrepresented. In fact, a lot of us were called names and I myself faced bullying because of my background when I was younger. They would not ‘Indianise’ us as quickly as they would someone from, say Delhi or the Hindi heartlands.”
Emphasising on the gravity of language and its significance on flutrr, she further adds, “My mother spoke Garo at home, so I grew up knowing my language very closely. Language is a very big part of our identity, so flutrr’s multilingual approach made me feel that I belong. When one expresses matters of the heart – love being perhaps the strongest of them – it makes a difference if you do it in your mother tongue. So, as a person, I’ve eventually felt that flutrr’s vision aligns with who I am and how I always want to remain.”
Currently, the app has 16 languages, including Assamese, Mizo, Nepali, Garo and Khasi.
Apart from all the noble qualities and novel ideas, dating apps, like any other online space, perpetuates issues and concerns of safety. It is only realistic to be forewarned that using dating apps will spark safety issues – women’s safety, presence of scammers through fake profiles. How does flutrr address these issues? Momin responds, “Safety concerns are always at the top of our priorities. Guaranteeing security, especially of women users, is non-negotiable for us. To ensure this, we have a host of proprietary features in our app. Private Mode Messaging keeps the content of the chats secure, and the Profanity Filter automatically filters out inappropriate texts and media in chat. Keeping in mind the protection of textual and visual information provided by our users, our app doesn’t allow any kind of screenshots or screen recording.”
The concept of dating has definitely changed. From meeting through sources or in public places, it can be kept discreet and within the confines of one’s home because ‘Swiping’ can be done anywhere. A boon because the pool is large, and based on many filters that one can sieve through. Bane because like the world out there, safety concerns are always lingering and there are limited means to verify criminals or other such antisocial tendencies.
“I think while finding a date is much easier now, it is also important to keep in mind the security challenges that come with online dating. Apps make your experience much more seamless, but there’s a lot of room for improvement in the culture of online dating – something we are constantly striving for.” says Momin.
Future of flutrr
As the brand controller at flutrr, Momin takes personal pride in her association with the app and believes that her presence through her identity acts as a boost for its growth. She says
“My background is something that allows me to bring different perspectives to the table. I think my cultural upbringing and experiences are different from the average person in a metro city. Being a Garo woman working in marketing for a pan-Indian dating app, I can introduce a vision that is informed by nuances and insights I have from belonging to a relatively underrepresented region. If I can constantly integrate my sensibilities with those of my colleagues, I feel we can make flutrr stand out from the crowd in terms of truly inclusive and holistic dating experiences.”
Removing language barriers, through the translation mechanics integrated in our chat feature along with an astro-compatibility score for each user based on which our app algorithm finds the best possible matches. Furthermore, Momin adds, “Our aim is to provide deeper and more meaningful connections. We plan to extend the product by introducing relationship counselling, gifting, combining music with dating and even gifting flutrr merchandise.”
Its founders Kaushik Banerjee, is an Engineer and an alumnus of IIM Lucknow (1992) with 30+ years in the corporate world and Anirban Banerjee graduated from St. Xaviers College (Autonomous), Kolkata is currently pursuing a Global Senior Leadership Programme at IIM Lucknow. Together, they have enabled speakers of 16 Indian languages to express love in their mother tongue.
There are 500 million non-English speaking youth in India and flutrr is clearly focused on bringing them online romance, in their mother tongues through lingual inclusivity.