HowAboutWe’s new messaging app for couples takes off

HowAboutWe‘s budding messaging app for lovers, You&Me, could eclipse the competition.

Best known for its dating subscription services, HowAboutWe originally launched with a focus on singles. You&Me is the relationship-centric startup’s newest product. For pitching purposes, the app rounds out HowAboutWe’s mission nicely: to help you “fall and stay in love.”

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But the dating space is crowded. Couple, Avocado, and Between rank among You&Me’s chief rivals. Although HowAboutWe’s matured competitors dwarf You&Me in size, the young messaging app is a formidable threat. A look at the couples dating space, by the numbers, reveals why:

As of May 19, HowAboutWe tells VentureBeat that You&Me saw 143,514 total downloads and 2 million messages sent since debuting in the app store on May 1 — that’s 111,033 messages sent per day. Between, by comparison, may be the largest couples messaging app in existence, with 7.45 million downloads. After that, Couple and Avocado reported have 2.5 million and 2 million downloads respectively.

Yet app store data from app tracking site AppAnnie paints a different picture. Post-launch, You&Me continues to hover among the top 75 social networking apps in the U.S. For May, Couple hovers among the top 100 U.S. social networking apps, Avocado ranks in the top 200, and Between’s user base is not U.S.-centric enough for a fair comparison.

If You&Me can hold onto its ranking after launch excitement subsides, it could overtake its competitors. We’ll know in a matter of months if HowAboutWe’s messaging app is all hype and no bite.

HowAboutWe’s core subscription product packs 3 million users, so it certainly has the power to grow the app. And last year, the company expanded its couples services and raised $4.2 million. In a curious expansion, HowAboutWe acquired popular love and sex blog Nerve.com at the start of 2014.