Free local dating app makes 'honest' hook ups easier

Let's not pretend that dating hasn't always been superficial. That people haven't always misrepresented their intentions to get to sleep with you. That finding a compatible partner wasn't depressingly hard work.

The new, free, South African dating app, Predict, claims to solve all that and it may be on to something.

You notice something different about Predict as soon as a profile appears. The bio always shows and prominently. Gone is the photo card that encourages you to deliver a verdict without ever seeing what the person might have written.

Founder and creator Ayal Belling says this emphasis on words makes people more inclined to write, giving you more to go on.

And then there's the social match percentage that appears on each profile to give you a sense of your compatibility.

How do they figure this out? Through your social data on Facebook, of course. Twitter too.

And finally, the saucy bit which probably got you reading this in the first place and which, with the above, may make Predict the best dating app yet for hetero women.

It has a third option to the usual yes or no of swipe-style dating which, it claims, makes people more honest about whether they're after a casual or more serious relationship.

Now, on each profile there are buttons you can choose - if you want casual, short-term or non-monogamous dating (middle button) or longer-term, monogamous dating (right-hand button). Or you can still just say no, of course. The clever bit is that you might match only when you both press the same button.

• Predict is available on the Apple app store and Google Play.

• This article was originally published in The Times.