THE VERGE – Last month, the dating app Hinge debuted voice prompts to daters' profiles. Instead of telling potential matches about themselves with text, they could do so with their voice. Each clip can be 30 seconds, and, at launch, Hinge said two out of three daters it polled thought voice would help them "better determine their chemistry" with someone. The prompts have gone viral on TikTok and Twitter, with people reposting them either because they're funny, cringe-worthy, or something in between. Hinge says 13% of new daters on the app build their profile with a voice prompt and that 46% of people on the app have listened to at least one voice prompt.
Category: Reporters – Ashley Carman
Facebook’s Own Ads Reveal “Facebook Dating” Is Not That Hot
THE VERGE – Apr 16 – Facebook first introduced its dating product as a test in Colombia in 2018 and brought it Stateside in September 2019. Since then, the company hasn't said much. However, The Verge has found multiple screenshots that suggest the actual size of Facebook's dating product isn't all that large but that it's growing. The company runs in-house ads that advertise the number of users it has in specific regions. In the country's largest city, New York, the company advertised 278K singles "currently dating" in the city this week. In Indianapolis, it advertised 43K people, and in Ottawa, Canada, it claimed to have 24K.
Garbo & Tinder Background Checks Update
THE VERGE – Mar 15 – Tinder will soon let users run a background check on a potential date. Match Group announced an investment in Garbo, a nonprofit allows people to run background checks with only their first name and phone number or full name. The investment, of which Match didn't disclose the amount (a seven-figure investment), will help make the group's tech available to Match's users, starting with Tinder. Garbo says it collects "public records and reports of violence or abuse, including arrests, convictions, restraining orders, harassment, and other violent crimes. Notably, Garbo said it won't publicize drug possession charges. The company says drug-related offenses don't meaningfully predict "gender-based violence". Garbo also doesn't disclose traffic violations. The background checks on Tinder won't be free, but Match is working with Garbo to figure out how to price them so they’re accessible to most users.
Tinder to Allow People to Get Rid of Their Geography Filters Completely
Tinder Starts Testing Live In-app Trivia
Tinder to Launch in-App Video Chats Later This Year
THE VERGE – May 6 – Tinder is going to launch its own in-app, one-on-one video chats later this year. Harassment and abuse could be difficult to screen for on video, as opposed to text-based messaging. But presumably, the team is either building its own offensive image detection system or looking to a third party to provide one.
Tinder Offers Tinder Passport for Free
THEVERGE – Mar 20 – Starting next week, Tinder is making its Passport feature free for all users through April 30th. Passport allows people to pay to swipe abroad wherever they want. It usually costs money to access through either Tinder Gold or Tinder Plus.
Hinge to Pay Users $100 to Go on a Date This Weekend
Swiping Meant Dating This Decade, and It’s Time for a Change
THE VERGE – Dec 11 – As we close out the decade, it might be time to retire the swipe we once knew. The swipe was born only seven years ago, and in that time, it's conquered online dating and made it mainstream. Dating apps are expected to top 25M users in the US this year, and as of 2017, 39% of heterosexual couples in the US said they met online, up from 22% in 2009, according to a recent study. Tinder lowered the barriers to online dating and gamified it. As we enter 2020, the apps seem to be finding out that the swipe alone is no longer cutting it. They're differentiating themselves by creating slower experiences that result in real dates with real people, presumably picking up on daters' wants. Even Tinder is experimenting with ways to augment the swipe and give people more context than just a yes or no. It launched Swipe Night, an interactive video feature, this year that gives daters the option to swipe on people who made similar decisions to them during the experience. The League is using automated, two-minute video calls to help daters filter through matches. New dating app Bounce concentrate on the real-life part of dating by giving people no room to talk and instead focus on the meetup. The app is only live at specific times.
by Ashley Carman
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Dating App The League Will Pair up Users for Two-minute Live Video Dates
THE VERGE – Nov 19 – The League, a dating app that requires LinkedIn verification to join, is launching its version of speed dating next month: two-minute video dates that take place within the app. It's called League Live, and the company will allow people to opt in to the video dates, which take place at 9PM local time on Sundays starting on December 1st. CEO Amanda Bradford says that, in initial beta testing, users between the ages of 35 and 40 liked the feature most, likely because their time is at more of a premium. Although the feature is available to both paying and free users, Bradford says only users who have a high "League Score" will have access. The League Score is measured by factors like how often they log on, whether they’ve been reported by other users, and how complete their profile is.