Meta Shutting Down Couples Dating App
Contributed by: kellyseal on Monday, August 01 2022 @ 06:41 am
Last modified on Monday, August 01 2022 @ 06:55 am
Meta announced it will be shutting down Tuned, its app designed for couples, in mid-September. As of the end of July, it is no longer allowing new users to sign up for the service.
Tuned was launched in April 2020 when Covid lockdowns were taking place around the world. It was positioned as a dating app to help couples better communicate by giving them a platform to exchange notes, photos, voice messages and videos, as well as share music via a Spotify integration. Tuned also let users set their moods and supplied a “check-in” feature with prompts so they could have a starting point to talk about their feelings.
Unfortunately, it didn’t seem to connect with couples. Tech Crunch pointed out that the platform was removed from Facebook Dating and other Meta platforms, which could have impacted its success.
Meta (formerly Facebook) has been testing dating products like Tuned via its New Product Experimentation team. The team had launched speed dating app Sparked in 2020 during the pandemic as well, but took down the app earlier this year. So far, Meta hasn’t been able to compete with online dating giants like Tinder, Hinge and OkCupid. Only 909,000 users downloaded Tuned in both Apple and Google Play stores. According to Gizmodo[*1] , Meta offered that Tuned simply wasn’t attracting the users and activity the company expected.
“Tuned is an experimental app from NPE,” the company said in an email to Gizmodo. “In the spirit of experimentation and similarly to previous apps, we try a lot of things, learn, and if our tests aren’t sticking, shut it down.”
Shutting down these apps might be part of a larger strategy for Meta. Rumors have been floating a hiring freeze, with possible layoffs of up to 10 percent of the workforce, according to Business Insider[*2] . An internal company document was leaked to the press from Meta's HR chief Lori Goler, who suggested terminating employees based on whether or not they met their goals as the company begins to operate with "increased intensity." Some employees shared that it felt like a “witch hunt.”
The company has been struggling under increasing scrutiny from governments and regulatory agencies, coupled with users moving from Facebook to other social media platforms, like TikTok. Facebook owns Instagram, which has been growing, but many users balked at the recent changes to platform features which tried to emulate TikTok.
The impending layoffs could be a factor in a company restructuring, indicated by the shutdown of Tuned, Sparked, and a host of other apps the NPE team debuted in the last few years. Facebook Dating hasn’t fared particularly well either, so this may mark the beginning of the end for Meta’s foray into the dating app world.