Por Lucía Viti

Singles looking for love can meet through a variety of ways; serendipitously as the stars align with the heavens leaving everything to chance; through social circles — family, friends and co-workers; or through online dating services where computer algorithms promise the perfect soulmate upon completion of a lengthy, labor-intensive questionnaire.

Ask any busy single how tough it is to meet their match and you may be listening for hours. “It’s just not that easy” is a common refrain.

Manshu Agarwal, a self-described mobile app matchmaker who lives in North Park, hopes to rock the dating world with Spritzr, a fun, stress-less way for singles and couples to play matchmaker.

The free app, currently only available for Apple devices using the iOS mobile operating system, is designed for “singles to mingle” while their single, partnered or married friends chime in with their own suggestions. Profiles are connected and authenticated via Facebook — with permission — and offer users the option to serve as matchmaker or dater. Profile details and matchmaking suggestions encourage daters to communicate via text. Confident to take it one step further, daters choose a rendezvous from Spritzr’s pre-selected ideas or pick their own place to meet.

“Spritzr combines the benefit of personalized introductions with the convenience of online dating,” Agarwal said. “Spritzr widens the pool of quality prospects while removing the pressure and awkwardness inherent in matchmaking; thus making it easier to initiate a relationship. And couples enjoy a rewarding way to match their single friends and fill that empty seat at the dinner table.”

Agarwal’s own brief yet informative profile includes photographs and requests information on relationship deal-breakers including location, age, height, sexual orientation, religious denomination, political status, levels of education and career, and the presence of children from a previous relationship.

“After that, everything is secondary,” he said. “People don’t want to be bombarded with questions. And there’s no evidence that an overabundance of interest details proves to be helpful information. Spritzr is an external defense that uses friends to say, ‘I think this person would be good for you.’”

Agarwal described online dating as a gladiatorial arena that’s broken.

“People waste time browsing, swiping and messaging based on computer algorithms that connect users to strangers,” he said. “Facts show that less than one in four online daters find a relationship and spend more time working online than out dating. Any other product with those results would be thrown away. But because there’s no better alternative and singles are hungry for a relationship, they go back. Humans are better matchmakers than computers. By matching singles they already know, the creeps are removed and singles have a greater chance of finding chemistry.”

Sporting an undergraduate degree in chemical engineering and an MBA from Columbia University, the former UK resident says he understands the pain of being single. Convinced that singles are desperate for something better than the “highly competitive, unfriendly, unhelpful, and ultimately less effective” online dating database, Agarwal said he intends to reach the masses with a recession-proof way to meet people through a social network.

Sixty percent of Spritzr’s current users are daters while 40 percent serve as matchmakers. Singles can also get match suggestions from strangers within the Spritzr community. However, three people must choose the same individual before a match is recommended to ensure quality match suggestions. Users also earn Karma Points — bronze, silver and gold — based on successful matches to reap Spritzr VIP awards.

“We believe in our mission statement: Creating love in the world through friends,” Agarwal said. “Named in recognition of a wine spritzer — Spritzr is a bubbly, friendly, low pressure, pay-it-forward way to add more love to the world. Spritzr is a friendly way to meet quality people with less shirtless selfies.”

The Spritzr app can be downloaded through Spritzr.com or the iPhone app store. The Android version has not yet been released.

—Contact Lucia Viti at [email protected].