The polarising and confrontational Black Mirror series on Netflix gave us something truly spooky in their recent Season 4 episode “Hang the DJ” which depicted a futuristic dating app in which an AI called “Coach” only gives daters a set amount of time — 12 hours, or even 12 years — to date a potential partner before they must move on to their next match.
Just as Life imitates Art, now, of course, somebody has actually built an app inspired by the somewhat dystopian system. First spotted by Forbes, it’s called Juliet and is available for free in the App Store. FIB has long wondered how long it would be til these occurrences started happening.
On Jan. 2, a 24-year-old programmer named Julian Alexander hosted a Reddit AMA in which he previewed Juliet to a curious tekkie audience. The concept is that users of the app will only be paired with one prospective partner at a time, for a set amount of time. There are no profiles, and no swiping — just basic info like sexual orientation and location.
After the time in which you’re allowed to talk and connect expires, users fill out a survey about the other person and how it went. The AI then supposedly learns from your experience and tries to match you with a better fit next time, and the time after that, and the time after that.
“She just does that until she finds you someone that’s really good for you,” Alexander, who refers to his app as a “she,” said on the phone with Mashable.
Reddit users were quick to notice the similarity between Juliet and the Black Mirror premise. The top comment on the AMA, with 5.8K upvotes, directly asked whether Alexander got the idea from “Hang the DJ.” To which Alexander replied that he is a huge fan. Alexander confirmed to Mashable that the Black Mirror episode did inspire the app’s creation.
“Charlie Booker, the creator of Black Mirror, is an inspiration,” Alexander said. “He does a great job depicting the merge between humanity and technology. I just want Juliet to do the same thing.”
The concept itself is not entirely novel. On Bumble, users only have 24 hours to start chatting before the match expires. And other apps including Coffee Meets Bagel, Once, and The League all limit the amount of matches you’re given per day — all part of a trend Business Insider and Time Out New York call “Slow Dating“. An app called Ditto takes it one step further, to Juliet’s level, with a one-match-at-a-time model.
And Juliet’s not-quite-astronomical rise has not been entirely smooth sailing. Some app reviewers complain that they do not like the people they were matched with; that, of course, will happen, when you’re matched with someone based on nothing (at least at first).
It also did not initially take location into account when making a match, so users complained that they were getting matched with people whom they would never encounter in real life. That oversight prompted negative reviews in the app store. Alexander has since rolled out a location feature on Jan. 7, and said he’s getting positive feedback.
“People are finding matches close by,” Alexander said. “Juliet’s going to keep on improving. She’s getting smarter.”
Of course, Juliet’s success depends on that whole “getting smarter” thing. For an AI-dependent app, the AI has to actually … work. Devising the perfect formula for a good date —let alone love — is something corporations and scientists are eternally struggling to get right, if it’s possible to do at all.
Will you download and give Juliet a go?