Why we built Rightswype

India has more dating-app users than most Western markets, but the apps weren't built for here. Translations are surface-level. Verification is an afterthought. Most importantly, intent — whether someone is looking for a long-term partner, casual dating, or friendship — is never asked at the point of matching. So first messages are guesses, conversations are mismatched, and the friction stacks up.

We started Rightswype because the existing options weren't trying to solve any of that.

What we built differently

Intent is a first-class field. Every profile declares it — long-term, casual, or friendship. The matching algorithm prioritises mutual fit. If you're looking for a relationship and someone else is looking for casual, you'll see them ranked lower than people who want what you want. Nobody gets blocked from the deck; we just stop pretending compatibility is purely about photos.

Verification is selfie-match, not document-upload. You take a one-time selfie in the app. Our face-match system compares it to your profile photos. If they're the same person, you get a green tick. The selfie is stored privately, never shown to other users, never re-used for other purposes. This is the single biggest lever for female participation in Indian dating apps — the catfishing concern is real.

Same-city matching is the default. Most apps default to a 100km radius. In Mumbai or Bangalore that means an algorithm-perfect match who you'll never realistically meet because they're 90 minutes of traffic away. We surface same-city, same-area profiles first. The /dating-in-bangalore, /dating-in-mumbai, /dating-in-delhi pages walk through how this plays in each metro.

Privacy is opinionated. Your data lives in Mumbai (Supabase ap-south-1). Sensitive profile columns — search filters, verification photo paths, internal scores — are locked at the database level; even with our anon key, no client can read them. When you delete your account, everything goes within seconds. We retain only a minimal compliance record (email, last IP, last sign-in) for 180 days as IT Rules 2021 require for lawful investigations, then that's purged too. Read the full Privacy Policy and you'll find no surprises.

What we got from the existing apps

Tinder pioneered the swipe — the gesture that turned dating apps into a daily habit. Bumble's women-message-first model meaningfully shifted who initiated. Hinge's prompts gave conversations a starting point that wasn't 'hey'. Aisle and TrulyMadly proved Indian users want serious-intent positioning. We've taken what works from each and tuned for the audience we actually serve.

What we're not

Rightswype isn't an arranged-marriage platform. We don't ask about caste, gotra, mangalik status, parental approval flow, or annual income. Those are valid needs other products serve. We're for adults choosing for themselves, with no third-party in the loop.

What's next

We're soft-launching this week. The discover deck has a small set of clearly-marked demo profiles to test the matching algorithm at low user volume — they're disclosed in our Terms section 2A, send up to four canned replies, never agree to meet or share contact details, and will be removed by 31 December 2026 (or sooner once the real-user community is dense enough). Spend a super-like on one by accident and we refund it.

If you've tried Indian dating apps before and given up, we'd like another shot. Sign up takes 90 seconds, including verification. Cancel any time, delete your account any time, refund the first 7 days no-questions.

— The Rightswype team. Bengaluru, 2026.