A new dating app is helping people capture hearts -- as well as Pokemon.

Pok, which launched on July 24, now has 30,000 downloads worldwide, according to co-founder Michelle Li.

Jeffery Zhang, Li’s partner and app developer, came up with the idea after he met his girlfriend while playing Pokemon Go in Florida.

Zhang is currently an MBA student at the University of Tampa. He said he was with friends and other players near campus at Curtis Hixon Waterfront Park on July 10.

“Everyone started shouting and running to a Pokestop,” Zhang told CTV Toronto over email, “so I was following the crowd and ran without looking at people around me.”

Someone crashed into him and he twisted his foot.

“I was very angry and was about to say ‘What the heck?’” -- but when he looked up, a woman was apologizing over and over agian.

“She took me to see a doctor and we talked a lot at that night and luckily most of my injuries were superficial,” Zhang said. “We have been dating since then.”

From Pokemon to Poke dating

Li and Zhang met through a company they were both working for around seven years ago.

“We’ve [worked on] several dating sites and apps in the past,” Li said, such as WooPlus, an app for “plus-size singles,” according to its website.

“We thought we would develop a dating app that already encapsulates the social aspect of people,” Li said.

Li handled the advertising and publicity aspect from Toronto, where she has lived since she was six, while Zhang worked on the development of the Pok dating app from Florida as an MBA student at the University of Tampa.

“This is the one game that really captured the world’s attention,” Li said. “And everyone's in on it wherever you are.”

The Pok dating app pushes users to meet each other in person, Zhang said, which is why he thinks it is successful.

“Meeting in person is a very important step,” he said. “Pokemon Go forces people to go out. If both of you play Pokemon Go, you can hang out with each other at the same time easily when hunting for pokemon.”

Swipe left, swipe right

Pok is similar to Tinder, another dating app that allows people to create a profile, list interests in their bio and connect users based on their location. If two people are a match, they can then message each other through the app.

“You’d swipe left or right to determine whether or not you want to be interested in them,” Li said. “If you both swipe, then you have a chance to message each other and go from there.”

Pok users can find a companion to “hunt” with, Li said, or join one of the three Pokemon Go teams together.

“I’ve noticed playing the game myself that people value different things. Some people want to catch as many different variations,” Li said, “Some people don’t really care about stuff they’ve seen before. They care about unique [pokemon].”

When Zhang was “hunting” on July 10, he was searching for rare Pokemon: a Dratini or evolved Eevee.

Instead, he ended up meeting his girlfriend and the idea for Pok “basically struck him in the head,” Li said.