Lauren Goode

Recent Posts by Lauren Goode

With HeTexted, Others Can Judge Your Date’s Text Messages

Let’s be clear on this: Usually, I’m writing about apps and gadgets, not matters of the heart.

But every so often, a unique dating site catches my eye. Like this one, for Apple product lovers. Or this one, for Wall Streeters. Or the one that lets your date rip you to shreds afterward, so you don’t make the same mistakes twice.

Uh-oh.

Now, a new site called HeTexted lets strangers judge your date’s texts to help you determine whether there’s a love connection beyond the data connection, or whether he’s smitten enough to skip the SMS and — gasp! — actually call.

Users can sign up for HeTexted for free, and can build a real profile or post their post-date exchanges anonymously. Then other users can offer advice in the comments section, or simply vote: He’s Into You, He’s Not Into You or Verdict Is Still Out.

The texts can then be shared through Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest.

HeTexted is the brainchild of Lisa Winning, who worked in business development at Quintessentially, and Carrie Henderson-McDermott, previously a beauty assistant for Glamour magazine. They are bootstrapping the site themselves, and have taken up residence at General Assembly in New York.

The site is still in beta, with a few hundred users testing it. Henderson-McDermott and Winning say HeTexted should launch fully in the next few weeks. There aren’t any mobile apps available right now, but iOS and Android apps are on the way, Winning says.

For those equally as muddled by the texts women send, a vertical called SheTexted is in the works, as well.

If the site looks a lot like Texts From Last Night, it’s because, well, it looks a lot like Texts From Last Night, the popular Web site for “digital dispatches of unforgettable nights most would rather not remember,” as it’s described here.

And, as with Texts From Last Night, which was eventually packaged as a book, the founders of HeTexted are already thinking about content syndication and book deals.

But they insist that the site will offer “more than just a diversion from reading boring spreadsheets at the office.” The real value, they say, lies in the feedback and community-focused features of the site.

“Sometimes your friends are just too nice to be honest about these things,” Winning says. “We’re looking to build relationships and offer people that honest, unbiased feedback.”

Update: We noticed that some of the exchanges on the site appear to be swapped, color-wise, from what usual iPhone exchanges look like. The company insists that the text are in fact submissions from real beta users, but that there isn’t yet a tool to submit screen grabs directly. In re-creating the images for the site, some of the text colors have been adjusted.

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— Valleywag editor Sam Biddle