Match Group Announces New Audio and Video Features for Its Apps

Dating app conglomerate Match Group announced that it will launch new audio and video chat features to its suite of dating apps over the next two years. The company shared this news on its second quarter earnings call with investors.

The company plans to debut a new audio chat feature and group video chat, along with other “livestreaming technologies” across its apps, according to Tech Crunch. The rollouts will happen over the next 12 to 24 months, with two of their dating apps debuting it before the end of this year, followed by more rollouts in 2022.

Adding new livestream and chat features are the result of the company’s pricey acquisition of social discovery platform Hyperconnect (the acquisition’s officially closed in mid-June). Match Group owns a series of popular dating apps including Tinder, Hinge, OkCupid and Plenty of Fish among others, and has said that the future of dating apps will likely resemble social platforms, with livestreaming and video being at the forefront.

Earlier this year, reports emerged of Tinder beta testing a group video chat feature called Tinder Mixer, so this doesn’t come as a total surprise. Match Group will be incorporating Hyperconnect’s livestream technology onto Match Group’s platform, thanks to its incubator testing group Hyper X, which has created some popular social apps like Azar. Hyperconnect was based in Seoul, South Korea.

Match Group CEO Shar Dubey said in the call that Hyperconnect’s technology includes: “AR features, self-expression tools, conversational AI and a number of what we would consider metaverse elements, which have the element to transform the online meeting and getting-to-know-each-other process.” Tech Crunch noted that she didn’t go into further detail about how these features might be employed for dating apps.

The company has already been experimenting with different user engagement ideas, including the debut of its first in-app original series “Swipe Night” - an interactive series where users were given choices as they watched, which led to different storylines and outcomes for the characters. Their answers also populated their profile feeds, so other users could strike up conversations about the series and their choices. This was popular among younger users, who look for a more game-like experience on apps as well as interesting content, as opposed to traditional dating apps where you look at profiles and swipe.

“One of the holy grails for us in online dating has always been to bridge the disconnect that happens between people chatting online and then meeting someone in person,” Dubey said on the earnings call. “These technologies will eventually allow us to build experiences that will help people determine if they have that much elusive chemistry or not.” 

She added: “Our ultimate vision here is for people to never have to go on a bad first date again.”