Apparatus and method for matching individuals during an ephemeral time period based upon voting and matching criteria

A system, comprising:

• at least one processor;
• and
• at least one computer-readable storage medium storing instructions executable by the at least one processor to perform operations comprising:
• sending a push notification to a client device with a prompt for a first individual to provide a vote for a preference that relates to an activity during an ephemeral time period;
• receiving, from the client device, the vote for the preference by the first individual that relates to the activity during the ephemeral time period;
• accessing matching criteria associated with the first individual, the matching criteria specifying one or more characteristics of one or more individuals from a pool of individuals;
• generating matches between the first individual and one or more individuals from the pool of individuals based upon common votes and the matching criteria, the common votes representing a corresponding preference indicated by the vote from the first individual and votes of the one or more individuals from the pool of individuals, wherein generating the matches includes applying respective weights to the common votes and the matching criteria, wherein the common votes have a greater weight than a weight of the matching criteria during the ephemeral time period, and wherein generating the matches further includes:
• during the ephemeral time period, applying a first weight to the common votes;
• and
• after the ephemeral time period, applying a second weight to the common votes that is greater than the first weight applied to the common votes;
• supplying to the client device data for display on a graphical user interface, the data including the matches and prompts for the first individual to accept or decline the matches;
• receiving a match acceptance from the client device for a second individual;
• in response to receiving the match acceptance, enabling network communication by a messaging system between the first individual and the second individual for the ephemeral time period;
• and
• automatically disabling the network communication by the messaging system after the ephemeral time period expires.

At least one non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing instructions executable by at least one processor to perform operations comprising:

• sending a push notification to a client device with a prompt for a first individual to provide a vote for a preference that relates to an activity during an ephemeral time period;
• receiving, from the client device, the vote for the preference by the first individual that relates to the activity during the ephemeral time period;
• accessing matching criteria associated with the first individual, the matching criteria specifying one or more characteristics of one or more individuals from a pool of individuals;
• generating matches between the first individual and one or more individuals from the pool of individuals based upon common votes and the matching criteria, the common votes representing a corresponding preference indicated by the vote from the first individual and votes of the one or more individuals from the pool of individuals, wherein generating the matches includes applying respective weights to the common votes and the matching criteria, wherein the common votes have a greater weight than a weight of the matching criteria during the ephemeral time period, and wherein generating the matches further includes:
• during the ephemeral time period, applying a first weight to the common votes;
• and
• after the ephemeral time period, applying a second weight to the common votes that is greater than the first weight applied to the common votes;
• supplying to the client device data for display on a graphical user interface, the data including the matches and prompts for the first individual to accept or decline the matches;
• receiving a match acceptance from the client device for a second individual;
• in response to receiving the match acceptance, enabling network communication by a messaging system between the first individual and the second individual for the ephemeral time period;
• and
• automatically disabling the network communication by the messaging system after the ephemeral time period expires.