#kahnoodle

An app that reminds us to be thoughtful can take the spontaneity out of dating. But love may have more to do with game theory than we think.

When a Relationship Becomes a Game

It’s a Wednesday afternoon, and Kamakshi Zeidler, a 34-year-old plastic surgeon in Los Gatos, California, is explaining how to fill up a “love tank.”

“If you do little things for your partner... you get signals your love tank is full. And if you don’t, you’ll get signals that your love tank is almost empty. It’s based on how much you love each other. Well, through the app,” she adds.

Don't let our cute name fool you.  Kahnoodle isn't just another one of those cutesy social networking apps that allows you to send virtual kisses through the cloud. Its a powerful relationship tool that combines decades of psychological research about what makes relationships work into a mobile game for couples.  Imagine taking thousands of research papers and studies and boiling them down to just the most important and salient lessons for how to make your relationship rock! That's Kahnoodle.

But you’re probably wondering what that means?

Because we don’t ever want to be vague about our feelings for you, we thought we’d detail some of the ways Kahnoodle helps you get closer to the person you love the most. Here are four of the exciting ways Kahnoodle helps you win at love.

1. Kudos & Positive Affirmation

When your partner does something sweet, you should show your gratitude by thanking them. While we always suggest that you give them a verbal thank-you in the moment, you can also give them kudos through Kahnoodle. Kudos act as small jolts of positivity that let your partner know that their gesture wasn’t fleeting and that you genuinely appreciated it.

Relationship guru and psychologist John Gottman spent more than thirty years exploring the key factors that predict relationship success and you know what he found?

The number one predictor of relationship success was the frequency of positive comments to negative remarks.  For relationships to thrive, positive affirmations have to outweigh negative remarks by five to one.   In other words, it takes five instances of agreement and support to undo the harm caused by a single criticism.

Kudos are small doses of positive affirmation that couples using our app can give throughout the day to show their gratitude for the one they love.

2. Date Nights & Couple Time

The Date Night Opportunity Report conducted by professors at the University of Virginia show that married men and women who have "couple time" at least weekly were 3.5 times more likely to report higher levels of sexual satisfaction and to report being "very happy" in their marriages, compared with those spending less alone time with their mates.

Kahnoodle helps couples go out on more dates by making it easier for you to discover new things to do in your city and more affordable for you to go out.  Our "Dates" feature aggregates ALL the daily deals in your city so you can search through hundreds of new activities and experiences for your next date night.  We love to save money – and we know you do too. That’s why all the date activities we currently feature offer you a discount. So get out there and have a great time together – without breaking the bank.

3. Making it Easier to Communicate What you Need Most

Let's be honest. No one likes to be the one to initiate "the talk."  We often avoid it like the plague because we don't want to make a fuss when things otherwise are going pretty well. Kahnoodle makes it simple for couples to communicate what they need most from their partner by allowing them to rank their Love Signs.  Each Love Sign relates to a core relationship need - quality time, sexual intimacy, thoughtful acts, affectionate touch, gifts, verbal praise and spontaneity. 

When your partner changes their love sign rankings its a great entree into having a conversation about what they need most right now and how you can meet those needs. 

4. Tips & Reminders

Running out of ideas on how to be the best partner you can be? Never fear – Kahnoodle is here! While using our app, you’ll discover lots of tips and hints on how to make your partner happy. From leaving a cute note on a fogged up bathroom mirror to making breakfast in bed, we’ve got a comprehensive stash of small, easy ways to brighten your sweetie’s day.  The best part is that each tip is customized to fit your partner's top ranked love signs and the things they need most from the relationship.

5. Gamification & The Love Tank

We are huge fans of using games to help people achieve real life goals - otherwise called gamification.  That's why we incorporated a gamified feature into our application - the Love Tank. The Love Tank is a visual way for you to monitor how "full" your partner is with love. Every time your partner sends you kudos for doing something sweet, the needle on your love tank will move closer from E to F. You also will unlock cool badges and real world rewards over time to keep you excited and motivated.  If you haven't done anything sweet for your partner lately or received any words of thanks in a while your needle will gradually move closer and closer to E. That's when our "tips" come in handy...

6. Private Messaging, Just for the Two of You

Research confirms that the extent to which you know the minutiae of your partner's day to day life is also a strong predictor of how long your relationship will last.  Kahnoodle's messaging feature allows you to stay connected on the details of your partners' day even when you are physically apart.

Imagine you’re having a terrible, awful, no-good, very bad day and all you need is a quick pick-me-up from your honey that lets you know that no matter how bad things are at the office, you have a loving mate to come home to. With Kahnoodle your partner can do just that – send you sweet nothings that remind you that when the walls seem like their crumbling around you, your rock is still there to support you.

Ok, that was six reasons, not four! These are just a few of the ways that the team at Kahnoodle is working to help you  succeed at love.

Take two trends, mash them together. What do you get? OH THE HORROR!

This may be harsh on Kahnoodle, a new iPhone app that hopes to be "the fun & effortless way for busy couples to keep their relationship fresh and exciting".

No, not swinging. Shame on you. This is less about group sex, and more about Groupon. Well, daily deals anyway: a feature to "search every daily deal site in one app to find discounts on awesome dates".

That, and "give each other virtual pats on the back ('kudos') for doing sweet things for each other". But we sense that's not the likely lucrative business model that's being aimed at here.