Dating apps have become a lifeline for singles around the world in the last year as most people are no longer able to get out and meet new people

This emerging French app is taking on industry heavyweights like Tinder, Bumble, and Hinge with its "boring discovery, boring profiles, boring icebreaker measures" approach to dating in the digital age

Co-founder and CEO Daniel Cheaib told Techcrunch: "A lot of people uninstall dating apps because they are boring The profiles all look the same, and it feels like you're browsing through a catalog"

The same is true of Fe Fe, which is a dating app for people who want to meet someone new

Therefore, Feels aims to eliminate the cattle market aspect of competing dating apps by allowing users to focus their profiles around their personalities

What this means in reality is that Feels is a dating app that spices up the game by asking users to create short videos in the style of Instagram Stories or TikTok After all, if "seeing is believing," videos will surely tell you everything you need to know about your potential partner

The app's creators are trying to position Feels as an "anti-dating app" because they think swiping through profiles is boring, but it may not be as revolutionary as the marketing buzzword suggests

For starters, you still swipe through profiles Nevertheless, the interface takes up the entire screen of the device, making the app both very up-to-date and strangely engrossing

Once you find a profile that catches your eye, you can move on to a private conversation with that user, which for many is likely to eventually lead to a real-world (or virtual) date Sure, the set dressing may be a little different, but at the end of the day, Feels is a standard dating app

Predictably, the app doesn't allow you to swipe back to a profile you've already moved past unless you sign up for a $10/week premium subscription; Feels might argue that "swiping is boring," but having to pay for that privilege It's definitely infuriating not to have to pay for that privilege

We had a quick play with it ourselves, and the app is clearly designed for Gen-Z It features cartoon characters, flashy animations fly across the screen, and a few rather dated memes Nevertheless, to the credit of its creators, "Feels" offers a number of comprehensive options to detail one's sexual preferences

The app is currently targeting the French home market, so its worldwide user base is fairly sparse at only 100,000, not a lot of fish in the sea compared to rival apps However, the creators hope to reach 1 million sign-ups by the end of 2021

Still, overall, it's fair to say that the dating options are a bit thin on Feels right now: when The Verge tested the app, only 12 people were using it in and around London But at least there is little competition

The app also faced some fairly serious initial problems, particularly with the profile creation step, which used to take about 15 minutes to complete This process has now been streamlined, with completion rates jumping from 30% to 75%

The app is typically available for both iOS and Android, but was recently removed from the Google Play store for reasons unknown The team is currently working to bring it back If you would like to give it a try, you can download the iOS version of Feels here