Was the Instagram 2015 Best nine hashtag a precursor to GetNine dating app

At the end of 2015, a website called 2015Bestnine.com appeared which looked through your Instagram feed during 2015 and picked out the 9 best images which it grouped together with the hashtag #2015bestnine.

Millions of Instagrammers around the world jumped onto  the site to see which  of their images were the most popular and received the most comments and likes. It was a combination of curiosity and an ego thing.  In order to generate the best 9 images, the site requested just permission to access your Instagram feed and within  minutes a 3×3 grid appeared with the top images from 2015.

That was the last time the site was given a second thought.

Was the Instagram 2015 Best nine hashtag a precursor to GetNine dating app?

It seems like the real intention of the site has been revealed when nine dating app was launched. it seems as if the hashtag was a way to gain access to an audience who was using Instagram and would be keen to find their top images which would make them the ideal candidates to offer them access to the dating app.

Those who used the site to get their top Instagram images were asked if they wanted to be part of a new service that is to be launched soon. Those that said yes effectively opted in to a mailing list and were offered to Nine’s first dating app users.

Correction Update 2 Feb 2016: we received word from the company’s President Yusuke Matsumura to clarify at which point Data was indeed collected. He confirms “that they “nine” never use the data from 2015bestnine.com. And 2015bestnine never asked them to login with the Instagram. So we technically CANNOT keep collecting 2015bestnine users’ data.”

2015bestnine.com has a email sign-up section below the result of the bestnine creation page and only at the point of the bestnine creation, nothing happens on “nine”. User registration of “nine” and 2015bestnine is totally separated. People who send us their email address received an invitation email from us yesterday.Those people who choose to download and people who decided to log in with their Instagram become Nine’s user.” [ed: Apologies for the misunderstand at which point data was collected]

“Over 130k Instagrammers joined our waiting list through the ‪#‎2015bestnine‬ campaign! Now it’s time to download!” says the app description which is currently only available for the iPhone.

How does it work ?

The GetNine app, creates a profile for you with only your top 9 images. When you access the app, you are shown other Instargammer’s 3×3 photos grid where you can swipe left if you don’t like what you see or you can swipe right if you do. If both you and the gallery owner swipe right you are able to start chatting within the app.

Why would this work ?

The thinking behind the app is that at a quick glance you get to see someone’s “personality”. This goes beyond what the person looks like but on a deeper level of how they express themselves.

I am assuming there is some matching algorithm that looks at your hashtags and content and matches  those to a partner that is into the same thing.

Your images of “three coke cans on a table behind a fire truck” is somehow matched to another’s “truck at sunset” image and now you have the option to chat about truck as an ice breaker which it assumes you are both into.

Where is the money ?

The basic app is free however, for $9.99 per moth you can get the Nine+ which gives you unlimited likes with the ability to find people within a 32 mile radius of where you are as well as unlimited “More Photos”.

The subscription fee is charged to your iTunes account and will automatically be renewed at the end of the month.

What about Safety ?

With the hack of Ashley Madison site, dating sites and apps are super careful about their user’s information. Therefore the app description goes onto say that :

PRIVACY: We will never post on your Instagram. We will never share your information with unknown parties. Liking someone is always anonymous unless you match with them.
SAFETY: To maintain our community’s safety, we will try our best to prevent fake registrations. People who have less than 10 followers on Instagram cannot join.

Reading through the Terms and Conditions (coz someone has to), they do say that : “By accepting this Privacy Policy, you agree and authorise Lip to share your personal information with third parties except as necessary to provide you with the services offered by Us, with third-party vendors, consultants and service providers who need access to this data to carry out their work for Us”

There is also a section called SOCIAL NETWORK SHARING which goes on to say: “Some of the features of the Site are social by design and allow you to publicly share information about yourself and your activities such as your level of activity and participation with the Site; activities performed or rankings, rewards, recognition and virtual items earned or received as a gift from other Site users; and comments, posts and invitations to people within your social network. By use of our Site, you agree and authorise Lip to share some of your information with social networks you are a member of, or on which the Site is hosted on and We are not responsible for their use of your information. You should review the applicable privacy policies for these third-party social network providers.”

Technically there is nothing wrong with those terms but as this is a dating site just be aware of what you are getting yourself into and what you are agreeing to.

How to remove apps from accessing your Instagram ?

Whilst on the topic of apps who can access your Instagram, you can quickly see which apps you have given access to your Instagram account over the years. You can go through the list and revoke access to any app that no longer needs to have access.

simply head over to www.Instagram.com

Log into your account and click on Edit Profile

Click on Manage Application. It will list all the applications that have access to your Instagram account.

Click on Revoke next to any app that no longer needs access.

Note: if you revoke access to any app that does need access , the app SHOULD simply prompt you to re-authorise it.