Recently, a matchmaking app called Checkmate has started to gain prominence amongst high school students. Checkmate, which is only available on the IOS App Store, was developed by Marriage Pact as a social networking app that enables users to compare their compatibility with anyone they choose.

The app prompts you to register first, asking standard questions such as your name and birthdate. Then, it asks you 24 questions, ranging from lifestyle questions including, “I’d rather apologize than over-apologize” to relationship geared questions such as “I want children.” The program allows the user to add friends and scan someone else’s QR code for the algorithm to compare their compatibility with the other person.

When THHS students were introduced to Checkmate, it spread quickly. However, when asked how long this fad would last, senior Emily Prasad said, “I think it’s going to last a week or two more, [since] it’s not that entertaining… you do it for fun, and go, ‘oh, I’m compatible with these people.’”

Many Harrisites leisurely use Checkmate in their spare time, not seriously taking into account their compatibility results. Senior Tiffany Cheung said, “it’s only for fun, there’s no real use for [the app] other than entertainment value. There’s really only so much you can do with the app… but the AI is cool by itself.”

Once a friend is added, they’re able to see each other’s compatibility ratings from everyone they’ve scanned in the past. It updates the compatibility percentages in real time and displays the name of the other person as well. Every hour, users are able to answer sets of questions and the artificial intelligence breaks down their responses into numeric knowledge points, which are analyzed as different categories: ambition, assertiveness, interpersonal dominance, etc.

Freshman Kelly Vu, unfamiliar with the app beyond its basic functions, said, “I’d like to see how compatible I might be with someone, depending on the questions… but it shouldn’t be taken seriously. It’s like taking a Buzzfeed quiz, it’ll help you get to know someone else better.”