Dating app Happn introduces new voice messaging feature

Happn users can now send their matches voice messages up to one minute long

Voice messaging is a new feature that Happn hopes will help it catch up to market leader Tinder (John Moore/Getty Images)

In news that is likely to horrify and delight singletons in equal measure, dating app Happn has introduced a feature that lets users send each other voice messages.

The newly-released feature will let people who have matched with each other on Happn send voice messages up to one minute long.

Speaking to Business Insider, Happn's French cofounder and chief executive Didier Rappaport said voice messaging will give users “another opportunity to connect on a more personal level and create meaningful relationships.”

Happn works by tracking your location and noticing when you 'cross paths' with a fellow user, by coming within 250 metres of them. After crossing paths, you can then see their profile on Happn (and they can see yours), as well as the rough area where you passed each other and a few personal details.

If you both decide to 'like' each other by pressing the heart button then it's a 'crush', and you can start messaging. If not, you get one last attempt to send a 'charm', which lets the person know you're into them. If they accept it, then you can start chatting.

The idea is to remove the complex algorithms and ideas of 'matching' in dating apps like Tinder, and make the whole thing much more random and romantic - if you exchange smiles with someone when walking past them on the street, or bump into a stranger you fancy in a coffee shop, there's a chance you'll be able to take things further on Happn.

It's certainly a novel idea, if not a little creepy in the eyes of some. The new voice messaging feature isn't likely to change their minds.

Voice messages could be open to misuse, but they can only be sent between people who have mutually agreed to talk each other. Rappaport dismissed concerns over the feature, telling Business Insider that it's easy to block someone on the app if you don't want them to contact you.

Although Tinder has become a byword for online dating in recent years, Happn is rapidly catching up - it recently announced it now has 10 million users, after launching in late 2014.

Tinder has 25 million users, but Happn adds 1.3 million more a month - the plucky French startup hopes that in a couple of years, they could be equal with the Silicon Valley giant.

Happn has already rolled out voice messaging to iOS and Android users. Now they just have to wait for the romance to begin.