The chief executive and founder of Hinge is departing to launch a new dating application centered on artificial intelligence.

McLeod founded Hinge in 2011 and led the company for over ten years, continuing his tenure even after Match Group purchased the business in 2019. The organization's president and chief marketing officer, Jackie Jantos, is set to assume the role of CEO. 

McLeod's recently launched dating application, Overtone, intends to implement “AI and voice tools to help people connect in a more thoughtful and personal way,” as per a press release. However, scant additional information is available regarding this undertaking. 

“We’re not going to talk a lot about [Overtone] quite yet,” McLeod told Fast Company, “except to say that there’s an opportunity to completely reimagine the dating experience and how technology can help facilitate people finding their partner—that breaks the mold of the way current dating apps are designed.”

Overtone originated as an initiative inside Hinge, but is now separating to function autonomously. Nevertheless, it will maintain connections with Match Group, which will spearhead the company's initial investment drive in 2026 and intends to possess a “substantial ownership position.” Match CEO Spencer Rascoff will also join the board of directors, with McLeod acting as the chairman of the board.

Match Group did not immediately respond to Coins2Day’s request for comment. 

This new undertaking emerges at a time when matchmaking platforms have faced difficulties retaining their user base. A 2024 study conducted by Forbes revealed that over seventy-five percent of individuals using dating applications encountered a form of “swipe fatigue,”, with a significant number attributing their exhaustion to the inability to forge authentic relationships. 

Some data from the biggest market player, Tinder, dovetails with these sentiments. The app is down by more than 1.5 million paying users from its peak in 2022, according to Fast Company. Match Group, which apart from Hinge also owns Tinder, Match.com, and OkCupid, reported a 2% year-over-year revenue increase in its latest quarter, yet Tinder’s paying customers dropped by 7%, according to the Wall Street Journal. To be sure, a bright spot in the company’s third quarter was Hinge, whose paying users increased 17%.

With the possibility of waning engagement on dating platforms, entities like Match Group, alongside rivals Bumble and even Facebook Dating, have increasingly looked to artificial intelligence to try and re-engage their user base. At the beginning of this year, Hinge introduced a capability named “prompt feedback” that employs AI to assist individuals in refining their answers to public questions, for instance, “my happy place.” 

Bumble and Tinder have both incorporated features that employ AI to evaluate users' pictures and suggest the most attractive profiles. However, it remains uncertain whether individuals desire further AI integration in their romantic pursuits. According to a survey of 1,000 dating app participants conducted by Bloomberg Intelligence, approximately 50% of respondents indicated they encountered no difficulties creating a dating profile independently, without AI assistance.

McLeod's latest venture, Overtone, originated within Match Group, but he stated that establishing the new dating application as a separate entity was more logical to ensure its swiftest possible advancement. Throughout his time there, Hinge's revenue expanded from under $1 million in 2017 to roughly $400 million by 2023. He informed Fast Company that he was keen for a new undertaking and to assume leadership again.

“I’m a founder and CEO at heart,” he said. “There’s a piece of me that wants to be out there on my own, ultimately steering the ship again.”