Match Launches Dates Feature to Help People Navigate Social Distancing

Dating app Match has launched a timely feature for these times. “Dates” allows users to share their social distancing practices and what they feel comfortable with from video chats to meeting in person.

The spread of the coronavirus has impacted societies across the globe and forced people to stay in their houses instead of gathering together, which has impacted dating. Many singles turned to dating apps for connection and to meet people virtually, and a number of apps launched video chat features to keep people connected. Match however is being proactive as we start to go out by offering tools to help people navigate meeting each other in person, since there are different levels of comfort people have right now in getting together.

According to Mashable, Dates will prompt users who are messaging each other if they are ready to move to the next step, meaning you want to get to know this person better by going on a date – either virtually or in person. If both agree, they are sent to a dedicated part of the app to answer more questions.

The first question is how you are feeling overall in that moment about how you’d like to proceed. Options include: meet in person, wear masks, or video date. If you agree meet in person, Dates offers more questions to answer, including asking each person what spots they like, and what their ideal first date looks like (in terms of whether or not to hug hello, go for drinks, dress code, etc.).

How to use Dates on the Match App

Image: Match

This feature ideally takes away the awkwardness of the conversation about how to date in these strange times. Match decided to launch the feature after surveying 5,000 of its users. A whopping 93% said they’d like to know if someone on a dating app is as into them as they are. Even more telling is that 66% have wrongly assumed a match’s interest level.

Since it’s a bigger risk these days to meet someone in person, it’s good to know up front how interested they are and how they’d like to proceed. Many people still prefer to video date first, because it provides another filter before agreeing to meet in person.

In the initial testing of the Dates feature (around 15,000 users), Match found that the vast majority – 96.5% - are open to meeting in person, and only slightly fewer people (91 percent) are open to wearing a mask. Also, 92% of men are open to a hug hello, compared to only 71% of women.

While people are still gravitating to video dates, people are understandably eager to get back to “normal” times when it comes to dating. Match’s new feature might help them get there.