Hinge CEO steps down to launch Overtone, an AI dating app

Hinge CEO Justin McLeod is stepping down from his role to launch a new AI dating product called Overtone.

Match Group, the dating giant that owns apps like Hinge, Tinder, and OkCupid, is backing Overtone with pre-seed financing and plans to take a “substantial ownership position,” according to a press release.

With Match’s support, Overtone was incubated as a project inside of Hinge. McLeod and a dedicated team spent the year developing the idea of Overtone, which is described as “an early-stage dating service focused on using AI and voice tools to help people connect in a more thoughtful and personal way.”

McLeod isn’t the only dating app founder branching out into new, standalone AI experiences. Whitney Wolfe Herd, founder of Bumble, said she wants to use AI to make “the world’s smartest and most emotionally intelligent matchmaker in existence.” Somewhat infamously, Wolfe Herd proposed the idea last year of singles using AI to stand-in for themselves and date other people’s AIs.

It’s not yet clear how Overtone will differentiate itself from other dating apps, which have been experimenting with AI features to compensate for the market’s growing malaise with online dating — especially among Gen Z.

Tinder has reported nine straight quarters of paying-subscriber declines and has leaned into AI with features that are supposed to help users get more matches. Hinge launched another AI feature just this week called “Convo Starters,” which is supposed to help daters come up with more interesting things to say than the usual small talk. Tinder and Facebook Dating have each experimented with AI-powered matching to combat “swipe fatigue.”

Ceding control of your dating experience is one thing, but other attempts at integrating AI into these apps get even more dubious.

Match CEO Spencer Rascoff said last month that a “major pillar of Tinder’s upcoming 2026 product experience” will be a feature called Chemistry. With the user’s permission, the feature will access users’ camera rolls to learn more about them. (For the record, we would advise that you do not give tech companies unfettered access to even more of your data.)

McLeod founded Hinge in 2011 as a dating app with a greater focus on building relationships than facilitating casual dates. The app, which is on track to hit $1 billion in revenue by 2027, was acquired by Match in 2019. Jackie Jantos, Hinge’s president and chief marketing officer, will take over as CEO. McLeod will remain in an advisory position at Hinge through March.

This summer, TechCrunch spoke to Jantos at SXSW London about how Hinge will address Gen Z, a market that’s growing increasingly disillusioned with meeting people online.

“This is a generation that has grown up with a deep understanding of how digital experiences are created and what they are trying to get out of them,” Jantos told TechCrunch.

Gen Z wants transparency and authenticity from digital brands, according to Jantos. While some might see this as inherently incompatible with the company’s growing reliance on AI, Hinge’s AI recommendation feature, launched in March, drove a 15% increase in matches and contact exchanges in the first quarter of this year.

Based on Jantos’ comments upon assuming her new role, it seems that Hinge will continue investing in these features under her leadership.

“Our focus will remain on intentional innovation that is grounded in culture, creativity, and a deep understanding of how people connect today,” Jantos said in a statement.