Hinge’s Justin McLeod leaves to launch AI relationship service

Hinge’s founder and CEO, Justin McLeod, is stepping right down to launch Overtone, an AI-driven relationship service.

McLeod launched Hinge in 2012, in keeping with its web site, and relaunched the favored relationship app in 2016 “with a renewed dedication — serving to individuals discover love.”

McLeod mentions the relaunch in a weblog submit on Overtone’s web site, stating that public sentiment was turning on relationship apps on the time, and so was his. So he made the choice “to tear down Hinge as we knew it and rebuild from scratch.”

“And but, because the cultural tides shift once more, I’ve begun to really feel a stir acquainted to the one which sparked our reinvention ten years in the past,” McLeod writes, harking to the degrading public opinion of relationship apps (regardless that Hinge has monetarily grown between 2024 and 2025).

McLeod then goes on to debate the rise of AI connections and the way they can not examine to human relationships — however that “AI, if used accurately, might help us invent a wholly new approach for individuals to search out their companions that’s way more private, way more environment friendly, and much simpler.”

For the final 12 months, McLeod and a small staff inside Hinge have been creating Overtone, which a Hinge spokesperson described to Mashable as an “AI-driven enterprise backed by Match Group” (the relationship app conglomerate that acquired Hinge in 2018).

“Suppose much less like a social platform, extra just like the expertise of working with an all-star private matchmaker,” McLeod says within the weblog submit. “A service that prioritizes attending to know you — and everybody else — so it may well make curated, personalised introductions to individuals in your wavelength.”

Jackie Jantos, previously president and chief advertising and marketing officer, will change into Hinge’s new CEO, in keeping with a press launch. Tamika Younger will probably be Hinge’s chief advertising and marketing and communications officer after beforehand serving as senior vp of worldwide communications. McLeod will stay as an adviser to Hinge via March.

Hinge, like many relationship and hookup apps, has been leaning into AI lately. This month, it launched Convo Starters, an AI characteristic designed to assist break the ice with a primary message that is higher than “hey.” In January, Hinge launched AI-driven immediate suggestions to encourage customers to jot down extra considerate responses to prompts.

Hinge’s personal customers are utilizing AI up to now, in keeping with a report launched by the app in November.

Overtone will not be the primary AI-driven “matchmaker.” Earlier this 12 months, Mashable interviewed Nandini Mullaji, founding father of AI matchmaking app Sitch. One other matchmaking service, Three Day Rule, launched an AI-powered matchmaking app this fall.