Dating app delivers brush-off
TOO polite to tell a weirdo from a dating chatsite to take a hike?
A new app is taking the brush-off to a new level with its ability to detect texts from creeps you do not want to chat to.
US-based Ad Hoc Labs came up with the Ghostbot because far too many online daters reported “awkward social circumstances” after blocking a mismatched person.
Ghostbot detects incoming texts from a person you are hoping to cease all communication with and sends automated responses.
It simply sends the rejection messages for you based on the new-age term ghosting, which refers to social media disappearance by ending all communication with someone you are not interested in.
The app will send messages that include the poop emoji or the thumbsdown emoji if it detects lewd comments, provocative statements, booty call messages or anything similar.
Once activated to reject a suitor, the app will send responses such as “nope” or “I just have no time right now” to requests for a date or chat.
The creators emphasise that Ghostbot is not recommended for personal relationships or to screen your family members’ text messages.
Adam Oxford, of the tech website htxt.Africa, said the app was in tune with technology.
“What technology does very well is it scales,” Oxford said.
“So in the old days you may have gone on two or three dates a month if you were lucky, whereas now you can access a date a day from literally hundreds of thousands of potential dates in one go.
“So in the same way that we rely on Google to acquire a spam filter for our e-mail, it’s entirely right that we have some sort of process to filter out candidates.”
In her experience as MatchVIP owner and dating coach, Bonita Grobbelaar found that people find it difficult to “be honest and tell someone that they are not interested in them or to get lost”.
“Most people either just try to ignore and avoid that person. So they don’t answer their messages or phone calls.
“I teach my clients that we are all grown- ups and rejection is part and parcel of the dating game.”