Meet Pozee, the anti-Tinder inspired by an ancient Hawaiian custom

Talk about dating apps, and the first name that pops into your mind would be Tinder – unless you belong to an older generation, then it would be OkCupid. Regardless, it’s undeniable that Tinder’s swipe-to-discover methodology has changed the dating game, and at the same time removed a host of potential problems unto unsuspecting men and women.

One of the issues that usually comes up about Tinder’s system is that it relies heavily on looks. Sure, every user gets 500 characters to talk about themselves, but honestly, the game is all about ‘look connections’ and not heart connections. After all, what makes the dating app tick is the simplicity of being able to swipe to approve or discard human beings, and that doesn’t really help a user explore a person’s character in depth.

So Tinder is superficial in that sense, and while it’s perfect for one-night stands, it certainly isn’t the go-to app for someone looking for a soulmate.

Joanna Hayes, co-founder of Australia-based ‘old-fashioned’ dating app Pozee, would no doubt concur strongly on this point. “Many people – especially women – are growing tired of the endless winks, pokes and impersonal correspondence from online and mobile dating,” she says. It was precisely for this reason that she decided to create Pozee as an alternative.

A signal of singlehood

Pozee works on the premise that, if both parties know that each other is single, they would feel more comfortable approaching and talking to each other. This concept occurred to Hayes when she was on holiday in Hawaii.

While attending a traditional luau – a Hawaiian party – she found out that it was customary for the woman to wear a flower behind her right ear, signifying that she is single to others:

This simple custom was said to play an important role in guiding the overtures of the men in attendance at such events for thousands of years. It struck me that there is no modern equivalent of this simple custom, and yet knowing whether a woman is single is the first hurdle a man faces when deciding whether to approach a woman. Sure, there are singles parties and traffic light parties, but singles need a solution that is working for them every moment of the day, whether they are picking up a coffee, grabbing some groceries, or out at a bar. Smartphones provided the perfect medium.

The app’s name, Pozee, also had the same source of inspiration. It was derived from the word ‘posy’ which is used to describe a small bouquet of flowers, or a single stem. “Offering a girl a little posy of flowers was one of my earliest childhood memories of what it meant for a boy to show a girl he liked her, and vice versa,” she explains.

Here’s how it works. By using your phone’s location services, Pozee shows you all the singles who are open to being approached within 50 metres of where you’re standing. A user can ‘announce’ that he/she is single and available to those around him/her by logging in as ‘visible’. If the user is not open to being approached, he or she can log in as ‘private’ instead.

Login as ‘visible’ or ‘private’. Your choice.

According to Hayes, this method does away with the apprehension and fear of rejection that prevents people from approaching one another in real life.

Read: Not Tinder

Safety is key

An accessory, and not a dating app