Composed

I deleted half our app and people actually started using it???

Ok so i've been building Composed (texting help for dating) for a while now and last month I had this moment where i just... hated looking at it.

Like it worked fine. A lot of people were using it. but every time I opened the app I felt tired? Idk how else to describe it.

It looked a little 2000's. Settings panels everywhere. Buttons that say things like "Change Preferences" like bro this is supposed to help people flirt not file taxes!

The cleaning

You know the scene in every makeover movie where they throw everything out of the closet? that was me for like 2 weeks

I literally went through every screen asking "would my Mom know what this does" (she would not but thats the bar)

Stuff we killed:

• those "Get Suggestions" buttons - now the AI just... gives you suggestions. revolutionary I know haha

• the whole profile setup thing at the beginning - now it just learns as you go

• two entire menu sections that analytics said like 40 people clicked ever

The thing that actually mattered

Heres the part I didnt expect - we stopped losing people during signup

Before: people would start signing up and then just use the app once a week, or even less

After: People signing in much more spontaneously multiple times a day to write back messages - maybe they are getting more dates these days?

We removed all the places where someone could feel cluttered and close the tab

Building for phones before we have a phone app

Ok this sounds dumb writing this out but...

We don't have an iphone app yet. its coming but not yet. BUT we started designing everything like we did

Every decision became "would this work if someone was using their thumb on the train" and weirdly that constraint made everything better??

You cant just add another settings page on mobile. you cant hide stuff in menus. it has to just make sense immediately

So now when we do build the ios app most of the hard decisions are already made.

The AI is getting kinda scary tbh

Humble brag section... but the suggestions are getting really good

It now looks at:

• what you've already said to this specific person

• what you told us you actually want (hookup vs relationship vs idk yet)

• the vibe of the last few messages if applicable

• whether its 2pm or 2am (very different energies)

We're getting "it said what i was already thinking but... better"

Which is exactly what we want. Not to be your ghostwriter. More like that friend who looks at your text before you send it and goes "maybe don't say that"

Stuff I learned I guess

1. small screen first even if you're not on small screens yet. The limitations help

2. delete stuff before you add stuff. everything you ship you gotta maintain forever and honestly its exhausting

3. "simple" takes forever. our clean ui took 7 months of ugly versions first

4. if you hate looking at your own product thats probably a sign

Anyway happy to talk about any of this. The dating app space is weird and you have opinions.

Question for yall - whats something you removed from your product that accidentally made it better?

Building a dating assistant sounds easy, right? Just tell the AI to "be charming."

That’s what I thought six months ago. I was wrong.

I’m building Composed, an AI copilot for your dating life. We recently shipped our biggest update ever...a total overhaul of our AI’s "voice". And the data we found during the process blew my mind. It turns out, teaching a robot to flirt without sounding like a corporate HR bot (or a creep) is one of the hardest engineering challenges I’ve ever faced.

Here’s what we learned about human connection, the "Uncanny Valley of Rizz," and why our users were begging us to turn up the heat.

The problem: AI, unless prompted perfectly, is too nice to flirt

When we first launched, our users loved the utility of Composed, but they had one consistent piece of feedback: "It sounds kind of desperate."

If a user asked the AI to "Tease her about her hiking photo," the AI would say:

"I noticed you enjoy hiking. That is a commendable hobby. Do you go often?"

Technically correct. Zero rizz.

We realized that default LLMs are trained to be helpful, safe, and polite. But flirting requires the opposite: you have to be a little unpredictable, a little challenging, and sometimes, a little "mean" (in a fun way).

The "HEAT" experiment

We decided to run an internal experiment we called Project HEAT. We stripped away some of the safety rails and told the AI to prioritize "Boldness" and "Playful Roasting" above all else.

The results were... intense.

• The Good: The copy-paste rate skyrocketed. Users loved the edgier, more confident lines.

• The Bad: The AI occasionally crossed the line from "cheeky" to "jerk." Which unfortunately works sometimes, but we want people to get dates based on toxic manipulation.

• The lesson: People don't want a "nice" assistant. They want a confident co-pilot. They wanted an AI that could pass the "1 a.m. Test": Would I actually send this to someone I like late at night without editing a word?

How we solved It (The "Plain Talk" protocol)

We didn't just turn up the "flirt" dial. We had to fundamentally re-engineer how the AI constructs sentences. We built a system called "Voice 2.0" based on three counter-intuitive rules:

1. Kill the "Writerly" voice. Real people don't use colons, semicolons, or words like "intrigued." We built a linter that actively penalizes "good grammar." If a sentence is too perfect, it gets a lower score. We optimized for fragments, lowercase starts, and dropped pronouns ("Down for drinks?" vs "Are you down for drinks?").

2. The "Blue Bottle" Bug. We found a hilarious bug where the AI, when asked to suggest a date, would always suggest "Coffee at Blue Bottle." It was hard-coded into an old prompt template. It taught us a valuable lesson about Prompt Dilution: if you give an LLM too many safety instructions, it clings to the one specific example you gave it. We had to nuke our few-shot examples and replace them with dynamic, diverse scenarios.

3. "Context Priority" is everything. The biggest breakthrough was a feature we call Context Priority. We realized users were typing specific goals ("Ask her out, but NOT for coffee") and the AI was ignoring them to be "safe." We rebuilt our prompt architecture to make the User's Goal the "Must-Fulfill" Prime Directive. Now, if you tell Composed to "Tease hard," it listens.

The Results

Since shipping Voice 2.0 and the new Context Bar, our metrics have transformed:

• Selection rate: Users are choosing the AI's suggestions 18% more often.

• Edit rate: The number of times users have to edit a suggestion before sending it has dropped significantly.

• Negative response reports: Down by nearly 70% 9it was already really low before that)

The takeaway for builders

If you're building in the genAI space, stop trying to make your model "smarter." Make it more human. And work hard at it.

The "Uncanny Valley" isn't just about visual avatars it exists in text, too. A message that is too perfect feels fake. The secret to our recent growth wasn't a better model...it was teaching the model to be imperfect, direct, and a little bit spicy.

If you want to see what "Voice 2.0" feels like, you can try Composed for free. Just don't blame me if your matches start wondering where you got your new sense of humor.

Next?! The UI! Let us know what would work better at: getcomposed.io

I suck at UI....

Hey everyone,

Eric here. Quick update on Composed.

We've been listening to your feedback, and one thing became clear: the app is great at keeping a conversation going, but it sometimes misses the perfect moment to actually make a move.

So, we fixed it.

We just rolled out two big upgrades:

1. The Invite (nudge to get together)

From now on, you'll often see an extra, fourth suggestion that's always a calm, confident, and ready-to-send invitation to meet up. No more wondering how to turn a good chat into a real date or hangout. We'll give you the perfect line.

Here’s how it feels:

"You give off fun and adventurous energy. I like that. Mini-golf at Urban Putt...loser buys dessert. I’m free Tuesday 7:00 or Thursday 7:30 what’s better?"

2. A Deeper, "Grounded" Vibe

We also added a new "Warm + Grounded" tone for those more earnest chats where you want to sound thoughtful, not just flirty. It's designed to help you connect on a deeper level by mirroring values and adding real, personal details.

The goal is simple: less back-and-forth, more momentum.

Give it a try and let us know what you think. We're building this for you, so your feedback is everything.

[Try it out now]

-Eric and Team Composed

P.S. The Invite gets even better if you use the optional "add a detail" box to give it a personal touch (e.g., "mini-golf, bring up how it cures hangovers, I'm free Thursday, quick walk at Crissy Field + coffee at Equator.")

Hey friends,

Biggest update yet… Composed v3 just went live. And this one’s personal.

We’ve spent the last 2 months training our AI to feel more like your clever, confident, real-life self and now it shows. Version 3 was the personality upgrade includes a few big leaps in how Composed understands context, tone, and play.

Here’s what’s new:

Smarter where it counts

1. Temporal cue detection
Composed now catches timing phrases like “I’m free tonight” or “after work” and automatically offers real-world next steps, so drinks, tacos, a walk for tonight (or said date) No more dead-end replies.

2. Teasing open loops
We’ve added just the right amount of flirt. About 1 in 9 replies now include a clever teaser or playful hook, something that makes them lean in, not check out.

3. Tone polish
Replies feel more natural, confident, and human with fewer over-explainers and no robotic filler. We've trained the model with fresh examples that sound like people you'd actually want to text back.

4. Sticky memory previews (Beta)
You’ll now see a subtle cue when context from your previous chats is being used. We're laying the groundwork for personalized memory summaries coming in v4.

5. Conversation memory…pick whom to remember
Ever wished Composed would recall past chats with your best contacts - Steph, Alex, or anyone you choose? Now you can:

1. Pick your conversations in settings, saved to memory.

2. Flip the switch next to each name to tell Composed which people to “remember.”

3. Watch as Composed weaves in quick conversation summaries like personality quirks, preferences, past plans, so every reply feels deeply personal.

6.My Notes
your brand‑new Memory Vault, so basically a private, persistent workspace for jotting down anything you don’t want Composed to forget:

• Workout goals, favorite latte order, upcoming project thoughts

• Impromptu ideas you’ll want at your fingertips next time

• Anything that will help Composed tailor replies to you

Access it from the sidebar, type away in the new Vault editor, and autosave will keep everything secure and ready for future chats.

🛠 Under the hood

We’ve built a smarter “Taste Rater” that balances flirt, logistics, and boldness.
Plus a new QA pipeline that keeps everything fast and stable so you can trust Composed to show up like your best self, every time.

👉 Try it now for free

1. Log or sign up at getcomposed.io

2. Send something like: “I’m free after work if you are…”

3. See what Composed suggests and how it sounds

4. Keep chatting. One of those replies might just have that perfect spark.

We’d love your feedback. If something feels off, or amazing, just hit reply and tell us.

Thanks for being early on this journey. This one’s a big step toward making messaging feel effortless, smart, and genuinely fun.

Let’s keep communicating.

-Eric + the Composed team

We’ve been quietly building Composed which is a tool that helps people write better texts (especially for dating). Think AI that helps you be witty, smooth, or sincere... without sounding like a robot.

The other day, I joined a Reddit thread about dating profiles. I didn’t mention our tool byname , I just shared some thoughts on how people struggle with first messages. Someone replied:

“Ah I see your back again promoting your AI tool.”

I hadn’t even mentioned the name or link. But the opportunity was too good to pass up 😏

So I responded (ironically, of course):

“Wait which one? 😅 You mean getcomposed.io? Oh no, definitely not the one quietly blowing up…”

Then I screenshotted it, made a meme:
🧠 How a hater accidentally doubled our user base
…and shared it in a few groups.

The result?

• 2x daily signups

• A 34% increase in returning users

• DMs from people saying “okay this is actually cool”

Takeaway:
If you’re building something weird, useful, or delightful you should lean into the moments where people try to roast you. Self-aware humor beats defensive energy every time. Bonus if you can spin it into content.

Use friction as fuel 🔥

We just launched a gamified XP system inside Composed - our AI tool that helps you write warm, emotionally smart texts (mostly for dating, but also friends, networking, etc).

Now every time you post a successful reply to The Lab (real convos that worked), you can:

🎯 Earn XP
🏆 Climb the leaderboard
⚔️ Enter Reply Battles - your best messages go head-to-head
👏 Get bonus points when someone likes or learns from your post

All messages are anonymized. It's like Duolingo + Reddit + dating coach and all built into one clean, human interface.

We built this for ourselves and our clients and now we’re opening it to the world.
Join early and test your skills: https://getcomposed.io

Whew. We finally finished rolling out Composed’s full design system across the app. It’s live. It’s warm. We're happy with it for this point.

For context: Composed is our AI-powered tool that helps people write better, more emotionally intelligent messages... mostly for dating, but also for networking, friends, and all the social stuff that matters.

So... what changed?

Literally everything visual.
We didn’t just slap on new colors and call it a day. We redesigned how the app feels to use.

Here’s what’s new:

🧶 New design system
We ditched the cold SaaS vibes and built something more human... inspired by cozy journals, gentle humor, and modern tools that don’t look like developer dashboards.

• Fonts: Spline Sans + Recoleta-style serif

• Colors: Soft cream backgrounds, pine green text, terracotta accents

• Buttons: All pill-shaped, touch-friendly, responsive

• Motion: Subtle fade-in slide-up animations (Framer Motion FTW)

• Layout: Everything’s mobile-first, with a comfy max-w-[700px] for readability

🧠 Pages now glowing up
We touched every part of the app:

• ✅ Landing page (with sticky CTA and live “Test Your Skill” demo)

• ✅ Auth flow (login/register pages)

• ✅ Messaging UI (input, suggestions, photo upload)

• ✅ Billing + Account Settings (subscription state logic + toast feedback)

• ✅ The Lab (card layout, submission form, pagination)

• ✅ Header/footer, alerts, toasts — all on-brand now

No more mismatched UI or mystery hover states. It finally feels like one cohesive product.

What’s next?

We’re gearing up for our next big push: Sticky Tools.
That’s our term for passive personalization — features that evolve with you and your messages. Think: Saved Vibes, Vibe Radar, Tone Analyzer. Basically, Composed gets smarter without making you do extra work.

We’re also holding off (for now) on background textures, illustrations, and heavier visual assets until this core design is locked and stable.

If you want to peek at the new look, head over to getcomposed.io ..or shoot me a DM if you’re building something similar. Always happy to chat design systems, message anxiety, or what makes a good CTA these days 😅

More soon. This one feels like a win 🧡

—Eric

Big milestone for Composed today 🚀

Quick backstory:
Composed is an AI-powered assistant that helps you sound more natural, confident, and clever in messages for dating apps, DMs, texts... you name it.
(Think: the opposite of stiff ChatGPT replies.)

We just rolled out tone enhancer which is a behind-the-scenes system that automatically double-checks the replies are being based on natural flow, tone match, and subtle charm (no try-hard stuff).

What changed?

• Users now only see the best replies automatically.

• Robotic, stiff, or weirdly try-hard replies are filtered out.

• Tone feels even more human kinda like a clever friend, not a customer service bot.

Example shift: Instead of:

"I enjoy hiking and nature trails too."

Users now see:

"You hiking people are built different. I'd last 10 minutes before a bug staged a coup. Maybe my blood is sweeter than normies?"

It’s invisible to the user, they just feel cooler and more natural when they send.

Tone matters.
Excited for what’s next.

[Would love feedback if anyone here has done work on humanizing tones on LLMs! 🧠]

Building Composed has been a blur lately.

We're shipping fast, sometimes at 2am, laptop cracked open on the kitchen counter with the baby monitor glowing, coffee from 5 hours ago still half-full. If you’ve ever built with a toddler around, you already know that sleep deprivation is not easy to deal with.

But we’re making it count. We’re building something real.

💬 Composed is a messaging assistant for modern dating. It helps you write better replies whether you're overthinking what to say, staring at a blank screen, or just trying not to sound like a robot.

And now it’s actually sounding like you.

🔥 What we just shipped (that we didn’t mention last time):

🧠 Smarter Tone Engine
We rewrote our AI prompt logic to reflect real human expression and not generic ChatGPT blur. We're talking bold, playful, grounded replies that feel like someone you'd actually want to text.

➡️ Example:

Them: “So what do you do for fun?”
You (Bold + Chill):
“Same things I’d do on a second date. Curious?”

It’s clever, confident, and just vague enough to keep the spark alive.

🛠️ Password Reset Flow (finally)
Turns out people forget passwords. We shipped a full reset flow, secure token-based emails, new pages, no disruptions to login or Stripe. It works. Clean.

🧼 Landing Page Polish
We’re making the homepage more emotional, less cluttered. Added sticky CTAs, real testimonials (shoutout Ryan and Michael!), and clearer copy. No more generic headers and it now says what we actually do.

📬 Welcome Emails That Don’t Suck
We tossed the “corporate” tone and rewrote our welcome flow like it’s a group chat. 7 emails (so far), all bite-sized. Each one shows how to use a feature with an example. Like this reply to if they mention family:

“Family is the best… have you told yours the baby names we’ve picked yet?”

👀 Next Up

• Final polish on our Smart Reply + Opener presets

• Finishing the new landing page (without breaking what works)

• Possibly letting users browse The Lab (a community of shared texts + tactics)

If you're reading this and you're stuck building something around people and language, dating, messaging, behavior , we’d love to jam. DMs open.

Thanks for following along and i think it'stime to catch a nap 😅

— Eric from Composed