T here are countless apps obtainable now for younger individuals looking for really love: Tinder, Bumble, and OkCupid, among others. Though their unique rationales vary—Tinder and Bumble tend to be both regarding swipe, but on Bumble, girls make the very first step, and with OkCupid you’ll be able to manage just how much details you reveal up front—they all need at least one part of common: Possible friends evaluate the other person according to looks.

But Willow, a new application showing up in application Store on Wednesday, are looking for yet another means. In place of swiping remaining or right in line with the earliest selfie you find, you’re prompted to respond to some three questions—written by users—that are designed to ignite up a discussion. What’s most, users choose when assuming they would like to display photos together with other users; to start with, the solutions to these concerns are common future dates read.

The app’s president Michael Bruch claims Willow places the “social” in social networking. Bruch, now 24, was new out of nyc college as he launched the application a year ago. He says he was seeking complete a void the guy observed when making use of matchmaking apps that dedicated to swipes versus everything you like.

“You can accommodate with a bunch of individuals who you would imagine are fantastic searching however don’t actually know a lot about them before you starting conversing with all of them,” Bruch informs ENERGY. “If I’m gonna spend some time with some body i wish to realize that we’ve got something to talk about–that’s what’s vital that you me personally.”

Bruch is wishing that same interest in talk is very important to many more teenagers and. Thus far, Willow has actually achieved some traction. Over 100,000 users downloaded the beta form of the application that established in August, delivering an average of three messages per day.

What’s a lot more, people are using it for more than simply finding really love. “It’s be a little more about personal finding than strictly dating,” Bruch states. “If you need to can get on a posses an informal discussion about video gaming you’ll, and additionally use it to spark upwards an intimate discussion with anyone that is below 30 kilometers out.”

The type of the software introduced Wednesday also includes a “Discover” feature that assists users google search what’s trending and best go through inquiries they’d be thinking about responding to.

It’s an appealing method because of the perceived shallow nature of today’s millennials—the myself Generation, as TIME’s Joel Stein pronounced in 2013. Today’s online dating apps appear to supply within their internal narcissists. And it also’s a lot easier to make anybody straight down according to simply her face in place of when you’ve began upwards a conversation. Observe just how users reacted to users without photographs, OkCupid one of the biggest online dating sites, hid profile photographs briefly in January of 2013 dubbing they “Blind Date Time.” They learned that their particular customers were much more likely to reply to basic communications in that times, nevertheless second the photographs comprise turned-back on, conversations ended–like they’d “turned in the bright lights in the bar https://datingmentor.org/escort/boulder/ at nighttime,” composed one Chris Rudder, one of many site’s founders.

Even though significantly discouraging result, some millennials are discovering that the stress of putting the face out there for your people to guage may be intimidating—and in some instances, unsafe. Just one single glimpse on jerky emails submitted for the Instagram membership Bye Felipe (which aggregates bad communications women become on the web) offers an effective feeling of exactly how annoying it could be for many individuals, but specially for women, attempting to browse in this artistic room. Folk is intense, fetishizing, and utterly harsh.

Software like Bumble seek to let women prevent that by placing the efficacy of hitting upwards conversation in entirely within their palms. But Willow desires alter the focus totally, from way anyone looks as to what his / her hobbies are. “If the image isn’t getting blasted nowadays, the number of harassment and messages you’re getting from the split will be decreased,” Bruch claims.

On the surface, the app’s objective feels like a cheesy line from a rom-com: a hapless sap complaining which they want individuals would bring curiosity about their particular mind rather than their appearance. But, Bruch and Willow’s other creators become hoping it has created a spot one of the myriad apps that cater to the millennial generation’s lifetime on line.