How Pure’s 24-hour chat timer forces daters to skip the endless banter

One of the major annoyances of online dating is how often matches devolve into pen pals rather than translate into IRL dates. Those initial, flirty conversations are great, don’t get us wrong, but most of us aren’t jumping onto Tinder or Hinge just to endlessly text. And yet, in modern dating, where both people often feel afraid to make the first move and take the match into the real world, endless texting is all too often the only result of a once-promising match. 

But it doesn’t have to be this way. Dating app Pure concocted some clever solutions to the never-ending chatting, and in our own experimentation, they work like a charm. 

Here’s how Pure introduced a sense of urgency into its dating mechanics, and how that helps users translate matches into real-life encounters. 

How Pure leverages a sense of urgency to benefit its users

One unique feature of Pure is that it doesn’t use traditional dating profiles, which means its matches operate differently than on basically every other dating app. 

Instead of having a permanent, public-facing profile, Pure users can post “ads,” temporary personal advertisements shouting out who they are or what they want, whether that’s for a long-term relationship or a short-term connection. It’s only when someone has posted an ad that they’re discoverable to other users, and only then are your basic profile elements (age, gender, sexual orientation, and photos) visible. Once your ad expires, so does access to your profile.

The result of this mechanic is a sense of urgency, the very real possibility that you’re seeing someone you may never see again, so if you want a connection, you have to act fast. That’s a very welcome change from the dating app norm, where profiles are always visible, and you can browse them at your convenience, whether on your morning commute or between sets at the gym.

But Pure takes things a step further with how you actually interact with other people. 

The disappearing chat mechanic

From the moment you initiate a chat on Pure, you’re under an artificial time constraint, since every chat automatically self-deletes after 24 hours, unless both parties agree to suspend the chat timer. 

While at first this seems like an unnecessary constraint, in practice it’s actually very healthy and helps daters avoid the endless banter that plagues so many online dating interactions. 

Think about what would happen if you approached a cute stranger in the real world. You may see them at a bar or coffee shop, going about their day, but no matter how smooth your introduction, you know in the back of your mind that you can’t monopolize this person’s time and attention for very long. 

For an in-person approach, you have to be concise in your communication: I think you’re cute and want a chance to get to know you better — would that interest you? But on an app, where there’s no sense of urgency, you can endlessly waffle, delaying the most important question of all in favor of a never-ending series of mundane questions. 

This is why Pure’s disappearing chat mechanic is so clever, even when both parties agree to disable it, since even that act forces a mutual acknowledgment of the connection. And after using the app over an extended period, we can confirm that Pure’s culture really encourages in-person interactions at the expense of endless chatting or swiping.