In my dream-world, I’d create an app called Same, for people looking for same-sex connections. It would be created alongside another app for people looking only for opposite-sex connections. That app would have to marketed and hold some ground in the dating app world. (TQ would try to sue for discrimination at some point. Having the second app gives the threat of “if you make men appear on lesbians’ possible matches, then straight men get to see a litany of dudes too.” And that’s probably what would save Same.)

Ideas I’ve had: 1. Your only choice signing up is to choose whether you’re male or female. 2. You submit info to identity yourself (name, phone, email, etc.). The app also registers your IP address. You then have to submit a copy of your driver’s license or state id before you can go any further. If the sex marker on your ID doesn’t match up to what you originally selected (or if any of your other info doesn’t match), you’re locked out of the app permanently. 3. This step requires a better facial-recognition AI than what we have. You have to give the app access to your camera and hold it up in front of your face in real time. (No highly edited photos allowed.) If the AI reads you as the opposite sex, you’re permanently banned. (There should be a process to appeal this step in case of error, but it would require talking to a real human. Trans would take advantage otherwise.)

Safety-Features 1. Either screen-capping isn’t allowed or screen-capping sends a notification to the user being screen-capped. (Like Snapchat.) 2. If a user goes on a date with someone, and they turn out to be the opposite sex, the user can report them. One report would lock the reported person’s account for one week and they have to resubmit both verification aspects again. (If things don’t match up, they’re banned.) 2. If this happens a second time with the reported user and a different user, the reported user’s account is locked again and they’ll have to video chat with someone from customer service to have their account reopened. (If they’re clearly of the opposite sex, banned.) 3. To prevent TQ spamming, no complaints will be taken seriously unless the users actually matched, talked to each other, and either planned a date on the app OR exchanged phone numbers. (Creepy invasion of privacy, but I think it would be necessary.) 4. Users making reports would have the reports they make tracked on the backend. Making a report without actual contact, gets you locked out for a week with a warning. If a user continues to make such reports, they’re banned. 5. Users making reports into multiple users after making contact would also have to be investigated. I’m not sure how this part would work yet.

Platforming would be biggest issues facing this and I’m not sure how it would be handled.