Dating app gives users an attractiveness rating on a scale of one to five

A dating app that evaluates user photos and issues an attractiveness score on a scale of one to five is informing users of their ratings.

Last week, the UK-based dating app Once emailed all of its users and informed them of their attractiveness score - which was determined by asking “users to rate each other’s pictures” and the app's algorithm.

According to the app’s CEO Jean Meyer, the decision to do so was one made out of a desire to be “transparent”.

Although it is believed that most dating apps use algorithms to rate users and pair them with appropriate matches accordingly, this is the first time a dating app shared the ratings with its users.

“[Ranking algorithms] are the unspoken secrets of the dating industry,” Meyer told The New York Post. “We know we’re doing it, we know our competition is doing it, so why not be transparent?”

According to Meyer, by knowing one’s rating, it makes it more likely they will find a match by aiming for “realistic” partners.

But just because a user has a certain score doesn’t mean the score is permanent, as Meyer said the algorithm takes into account when a lower-scored person matches with someone who has a higher rating.

On Twitter, one user said she was “horrified” by Once’s decision to reveal ratings. An article by The Guardian hypothesised whether anybody would “even want such a feature” and whether it could be the “death of the dating app”.

Despite the somewhat negative response, Meyer wants to remind users their rating is about nothing more than their pictures.

“We are disclosing the rate of how your pictures are perceived, it doesn’t mean you’re ugly or you’re beautiful,” he said, adding: “It only reflects one attribute of who you are - your pictures.”