If “What are you reading?” sounds better than “Hey, wyd?” There is now a dating app built around that conversation starter.
Readme is a dating app for readers, writers and talkers, created by Banu Guler, the creator of astrology app Co-Star, together with artist Emily Segal. Instead of centering dating profiles around photos and conventional prompts, Readme puts books, language and conversation at the heart of how users meet.
The app starts with a quiz designed to determine a user’s reading archetype. There are 12 archetypes in total, drawing from research in literature, language analysis and psycholinguistics.
Among them are Utopia in Our Lifetime, for people who see the world through a more idealistic lens; Former Gifted Child, which describes people who place less importance on social conventions; and The Universal Ventilane, whose defining idea is learning that gestures can communicate information without words.
Once users have their archetype, they can explore other people on the app based on their shared interest in reading, writing and conversation.
Readme also allows users to share what they are currently reading and see what other users are picking up, giving potential matches something to talk about beyond the usual dating-app prompts.
The app also leans into the idea that communication style can say something about compatibility. Users can message people they are interested in, while Readme provides tools to report or block other accounts.
How to sign up
Readme is currently available only on the Apple App Store for iPhone, and requires iOS 26 or later. Users must also be 18 or older to create an account.
To get started, download Readme from the App Store and create an account. Users then take the app’s reading-archetype quiz.
From there, users can share the books they are reading, see what other users are reading, discover potential matches and message other users.
Android users will have to sit this one out, for now.
