Introducing Crescendo: the new sex toy that lets you order bespoke vibrations via an app on your phone

Bend it, shape it, anyway you want to — a new adult toy designed by women lets you connect via an app and order your bespoke vibrations, says Phoebe Luckhurst
Sexual healing: Crescendo researchers Nora Mekavuthikul and Camilla Sundwall
Daniel Hambury

Sex toys still elicit giggles, even in the most mature, enlightened shagger. There’s something a little Carry On about them — something that turns sex into a naff performance, and later the fodder for “girly Cosmos” in a “downtown bar”.

Despite this being their public face, in private we’re all at it. At the last estimate, the UK sex toy business was worth £250 million, and it’s growing. We have evolved from scratchy Ann Summers teddies to high-tech toys with brains in their... well, you know.

But while we’re better at knowing what we want, mainstream sex toys remain rather standard issue: you’re looking at bullet-shaped or penis-shaped.

“The only way to please a lot of people is to make it personal,” explains Soumyadip Rakshit, co-founder and CEO of MysteryVibe, which has created Crescendo — or, “the world’s first truly personal adult toy. These days, technology is very personal — and a sex toy is more personal than a smartphone.”

Bespoke vibrations: the Crescendo and its charging pad

Crescendo can be bent into any shape you like (within reason); it has six vibration modes; you can order your vibes using an app on your phone (depending on whether you like to serve up a set menu or go with the flow). It buzzes discreetly.

“We were inspired by a phone,” says Rakshit (how sexy). “The Nokia Morph. We saw a video that shows a phone that wraps into a watch and then unwraps to be a tablet. We thought it was awesome technology, and that we could use that.”

In partnership with trend forecaster Seymour Powell, MysteryVibe (mysteryvibe.com) spoke to women about what they wanted. A research team made up of Mariel Brown, Camilla Sundwall and Nora Mekavuthikul spoke to groups of disparate women, many of whom confessed — after a bit of nudging — that they disliked the idea that they’d want the same thing every time.

Best sex toys - in pictures

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Rakshit also knew that in order to force a revolution, he needed to get the technology industry on board. “We take it to mainstream conferences — we launched at Tech Crunch Disrupt in New York,” he explains. “Building the brand in an open, positive and honest way is better for the industry and for the public.” And the team keeps it serious: “We focus on how we can use tech around pleasure — to make long-term relationships fun, rather than as part of the ‘adult industry’. It makes it more approachable.” In July, MysteryVibe was the first sex toy company to exhibit at Pioneers, a tech festival in Vienna, and was one of four start-ups to be selected to appear on stage and pitch to leading global investors.

I am handed a toy. It does not help that I am sitting in my office canteen; think of the least sexy place in the world, then imagine it also smells like a cold, congealing roast and is presided over by a tyrannical — not in a kinky way — head of ops. This was the setting for my sexual awakening (of sorts). But it is definitely flexible; the vibrations are impressive. A colleague walks past and I become a bit hysterical. I vow to work on my maturity.

Back to business — one feature thrown up by the research was the relative size of the tip. “The tip of the toy must bend more accurately to reach the G spot,” says Rakshit, solemnly. “And a lot of people don’t even know where it is so they need to help them find it. Some people want the toy to be strong at the G spot, weak at the base — the only way to please a lot of people is to make it personal.”

Are we sufficiently grown up for this? I’m not, though Rakshit insists the market is ready for continued innovation. “The customer and the market has always been there. People are afraid of sex shops — they seem dirty and seedy — but now Amazon sells sex toys online. The barriers are gone now.”

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