Jamie F
Rebel Wilson, the Australian actor, and Carly Steel, the British actor and presenter, have launched a new dating app, Fluid, for people who want to browse profiles without setting sexuality specifications.
In recent years mainstream dating apps such as Tinder have been adding new gender and sexuality options to search parameters and profile settings, in an attempt to accommodate more users’ identities. Wilson and Steel’s app tries to be more gender-inclusive by not allowing you to search profiles by any sexuality setting at all.
As such, Fluid’s tagline is: “Love, no labels.” The free app launched hot on the heels of Valentine’s Day on Apple’s App Store (though we’re not sure why it didn’t launch before!).
Wilson, who is engaged to Ramona Agruma, founder of clothing brand Lemon Ve Limon, said that Fluid was partly inspired by her own experiences of dating when you don’t fit into a “traditional” category.
“I know first-hand how difficult it is to navigate the dating world, especially when you don’t fit into traditional labels,” she said. “No other app gives people the freedom to just [be] themselves, wherever they’re at on their journey, and explore new possibilities in a safe space without categorization. It’s a modern way of looking at love and dating.”
Fluid said that the app was suitable for anyone who is “straight, queer, questioning, heteroflexible, bisexual, pansexual, gay, lesbian, open to exploring, anywhere on the LGBTQIA+ spectrum”, or who would prefer not to be labelled at all with regard to sexuality.
Rather than presenting potential matches to users based on sexuality definitions, Fluid’s algorithm learns your non-sexuality-based preferences as you swipe ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to profiles. As it learns, it presents matches based on your location and what appears in profiles to which you seem attracted.
In efforts to make Fluid a safe space, the app’s creators warn users that they could be kicked off the platform for their behavior – either within the app or through offline actions.
No nudity or sexual content is allowed on the app, nor is harassment, or violent or gory content.
There’s also an anti-hate speech policy. The app defines hate speech as any content that “promotes, advocates for, or condones racism, bigotry, hatred, or violence against individuals or groups based on factors like (but not limited to) race, ethnicity, religious affiliation, disability, gender, age, national origin, sexual orientation, or gender identity.”
Before her career as a dating app founder, Wilson was best known for films such as Pitch Perfect, Isn’t It Romantic, and The Almond and the Seahorse. Steel appeared in the film He’s Just Not That Into You, and has worked as a TV presenter.
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