Hinge CEO Justin McLeod has left his position to launch a new AI dating product called Overtone.
Match Group, the dating giant that owns apps like Hinge, Tinder and OkCupid, is backing Overtone with pre-seed financing and plans to take a “beneficial ownership position,” according to a press release.
With support from Match, Overtone was born as a project within Hinge. McLeod and his dedicated team spent a year developing the idea for Overtone. It’s described as “an early-stage dating service focused on using AI and voice tools to help people connect in more thoughtful and personal ways.”
McLeod isn’t the only dating app founder branching out into new standalone AI experiences. Bumble founder Whitney Wolfe Herd said she wants to use AI to create “the smartest, most emotionally intelligent matchmaker in the world today.” Somewhat infamously, Wolfe Herd proposed the idea last year of single people using AI to take their place and date other people’s AI.
It’s not yet clear how Overtone will differentiate itself from other dating apps. Other dating apps are experimenting with AI features to compensate for the market’s growing concerns about online dating, especially among Gen Z.
Tinder has reported nine consecutive quarters of declining paid memberships and is leaning toward AI with features said to help users find more matches. Hinge launched another AI feature this week called “Convo Starters.” This should help your date come up with something more interesting than regular small talk. Tinder and Facebook Dating have each experimented with AI-powered matching to combat “swipe fatigue.”
Giving up control of your dating experience is one thing, but other attempts to integrate AI into these apps become even more questionable.
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Match CEO Spencer Rascoff said last month that a “big pillar of Tinder’s future product experience in 2026” will be a feature called Chemistry. With your permission, this feature can access your camera roll to learn more about you. (As a reminder, we recommend that you don’t give technology companies any more unfettered access to your data.)
McLeod founded Hinge in 2011 as a dating app focused on building relationships rather than facilitating casual dating. The app is expected to reach $1 billion in revenue by 2027 and was acquired by Match in 2019. Jackie Jantos, Hinge’s president and chief marketing officer, will become CEO. McLeod will remain an advisor to Hinge until March.
This summer, TechCrunch spoke with Jantos at SXSW in London about how Hinge caters to Gen Z, who are becoming increasingly disillusioned with meeting people online.
“This is a generation that has grown up with a deep understanding of how digital experiences are created and what they’re trying to get out of them,” Jantos told TechCrunch.
Jantos said Gen Z wants transparency and trust from digital brands. While some might think this is inherently at odds with the company’s growing reliance on AI, Hinge’s AI recommendations feature, launched in March, led to a 15% increase in matches and contact exchanges in the first quarter of this year.
Based on Jantos’ comments upon assuming her new role, it appears Hinge will continue to invest in these capabilities under her leadership.
“We remain focused on intentional innovation based on culture, creativity, and a deep understanding of how people connect today,” Jantos said in a statement.
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