What changes when a dating app has no photos

The first screen of a dating app is a face. The decision happens in half a second, and the conversation after that is a procedure to confirm it. Lettie flips the order. At the start there is only a pixel character and a letter.

What actually happens when the photos are gone

• First letters get longer. Words are all you have to show. They run several times the length of a first chat message.
• The selection criterion changes. In Discover you see an envelope's first line, the sender's character and a stamp. "I'm curious about whoever wrote this sentence" becomes the only reason to open it.
• Rejection stings less. No reply is about one letter, not about your face.
• Empty conversation disappears. Nothing starts with "what's up?" — a letter takes hours to arrive, so you can't ask.

What the character looks like

Sixteen small full-body pixel characters come free and you can switch any time. And if you describe yourself in words — "short curly hair, yellow raincoat, glasses" — we draw your own in the same style. It doesn't try to look like your face; it draws your mood. That's how you show up here.

So do you never see a face?

You do, naturally, once letters are flowing. You can attach photos to a letter, and the two of you decide when. The app only decides the order — words first, faces later.

The honest downsides

• If looks are what matter to you, this is inefficient. The app isn't for you.
• A letter takes hours to arrive. If you want to talk to someone tonight, use a chat app.
• Fewer people than the big dating apps. The ones here came to write letters.

Who this is for

• You're tired of being judged by a photo
• Longer conversations feel easier to you, not harder
• You're open to meeting someone abroad (the app does the translating)

If that's you, open one envelope in Discover tonight. You won't know the writer's face, but you'll know how they think. On dating apps it's usually the other way round.