A Pioneer of Dating Apps Wants to Fix Modern Dating, Starting in Denver

Before there was Tinder or Bumble, there was PhoneFling.

Released in 2005, PhoneFling was among the first mobile dating sites in the United States. Twenty years later, a co-creator of the pioneering platform is on a mission to save the dating scene from the damage caused by online services like his.

“Modern dating apps have made the process 100 percent digital,” Scott Demyon says. “Chemistry, personality and body language have been stripped from the process. Our brains have been rewired to make quick, shallow decisions, thinking there’s another option right around the next swipe. We’re passing on people who, had we met in person, might’ve been a good match.”

How does Demyon plan to correct this predicament? With another app, of course.

Demyon’s new dating app, Swerv, is set to launch in Denver this month. On Swerv, there’s no swiping, almost no messaging, and photos are entirely optional.

Rather than choosing dates and chatting online, the app is designed to facilitate organic in-person meetings. When users are active, their location is visible as a pin on a map. Singles can use the location information to determine where they’re most likely to bump into a special someone IRL, whether at a bar, a coffee shop or even a grocery store.

“Let’s say you’re heading to a bar on a Friday night,” Demyon says. “What if you could see that there are only four people in that bar who match what you’re looking for? But there’s a bar across the street that has 23? You ‘swerve’ your plans to the bar across the street, and you have a higher chance of naturally crossing paths with one of those people.”

“It’s not a guarantee, it’s not a pre-set up meeting,” he explains. “It’s giving you higher odds of being at the right place to meet people the old-fashioned way.”

Users are anonymous by default. Clicking someone’s location pin only shows basic info like their age, gender and match score, which reflects how well a pair’s preferences, personalities and relationship goals align.

However, users can also choose to make their name and photos visible on their location pin, making it easier for potential matches to find them. They can even set introduction prompts, such as, Join me for a coffee at Weathervane, or Come ask me about my dog, Bella.

Communication on the app is limited. Users can only send each other messages when they’re within a few hundred feet of one another to help them meet up in person. Demyon says this feature is meant to prevent ghosting, scam bots and matches that never advance into actual dates.

“I don’t want people interacting electronically to get to know each other,” Demyon says. “Trying to get to know somebody over a text message, I equate that to trying to get to know somebody through a wall.”

As a safety feature, users must press a button that says “go online” to make their locations visible. Locations are updated every five minutes, not in real-time. If a user is moving, their location will not be updated until they are stationary, Demyon says. Users are also prompted to set up “privacy areas” where the app will automatically disable location tracking, such as around their homes or workplaces.

Demyon has been working on the app since 2016 and did a pre-launch for the platform in 2023. Today, there are nearly 10,000 users signed up nationwide, he says. But it only works when users are grouped together.

Swerv’s initial pre-launch campaign was focused on San Diego, where around 7,000 people signed up, Demyon says. In a city of 1.4 million people across 372 square miles, those 7,000 members were spread thin. Plus, unlike traditional dating apps, the user pool is further limited to those who are online at the same time. Singles can’t simply scroll through a stockpile of profiles at any hour.

Online reviews for the app largely praise the concept, but criticize that “nobody” is on it, with one review calling the user base “drier than the Sahara.”

“The timing needs to be right,” Demyon says. “We got really good feedback [in San Diego], but kind of ran out of marketing capital at that point. I’ve recently relocated to Denver, so we’re ramping up to do a launch here.”

Denver could be a better venue than San Diego. The Mile High City has half the population with a much smaller, denser downtown, making it more likely that users will be near one another and able to take advantage of the app’s location features.

Demyon says he is also partnering with local events and dating services, like Pitch-a-Friend, to help spread the word.

“It’s very different, very unique,” Demyon says. “Maybe I’m still a little ahead of our time, but I think people are ready for something new.”

Learn more about Swerv and how to download it here.