Contributed by: kellyseal on Wednesday, October 02 2024 @ 02:22 pm
Last modified on Wednesday, October 02 2024 @ 02:30 pm
Popular dating apps like Tinder, Bumble and Grindr are building and testing out virtual wingmen and other AI-driven tools on their platforms to help generate icebreakers and offer instant feedback, according to a new feature in The Financial Times.
Grindr chief product officer AJ Balance told the Financial Times that the gay dating app’s chatbot assistant called Grindr Wingman would help users with their dating “pain points,” like helping them initiate flirty conversation via curated prompts based on user profiles and chat histories.
“It’s that friend in the bar who’s helping you to ask someone out — but in the virtual context,” Balance told FT[*1] , saying that using AI in this way could help take the hard work out of online dating.
Tinder is also working on an AI-driven experience that it will roll out in the next year. The company didn’t give FT many details aside from the fact that it plans to use AI to “support daters throughout their entire dating journey,” which likely means helping them choose matches and strike up conversations.
Tinder has also launched a rollout of its profile-building tool, powered by AI, to take the “burden” out of choosing which photos to post in a profile. The tool scans the user’s photos from the camera roll and selects what it thinks are the best collection of images, taking the guesswork out for the user.
Hinge has also announced its “ultimate goal” which is to offer users what is essentially a virtual matchmaker inside the app. Currently, the app has prompts to help users describe themselves on the app, and is planning to launch a chatbot tool offering AI-generated feedback on user answers to its signature prompts, according to FT.
Bumble’s former CEO Whitney Wolfe Herd said last year at a tech conference that AI could be used to streamline the dating process altogether: that is, virtual wingmen could chat with each other to see if it’s a good fit first before humans enter the equation. Balance said to FT: “The idea of a wingman talking to someone else’s wingman, maybe to see what it’d be like to go on a date or to find common areas of interest, is something that’s worth exploring.”
For now, Bumble’s current CEO Lidiane Jones is focused on AI-driven tools that help users strike up conversations, and says the company is building an AI “conversation support” that would “help our customers gain confidence to be their best selves,” according to FT.