Plenty of Fish Adds a New Blind Date Game to its Platform

Dating app Plenty of Fish has added a new game called Blind Date to POF Live!, a streaming platform for its users.

Blind Date is a twist on the traditional real-life experience, according to the company’s blog post. Instead of seeing your date for the first time when you meet, your virtual “blind dates” are blurred out so you can’t see who you’re chatting with – so personality and conversational skills are front and center. Each virtual date is timed, and as you chat longer, your date becomes less blurred. At the end of the timed chat or when you choose to message them, your blind date’s image is revealed.

In order to play Blind Date, you can join Live! via the POF home screen on the app. When you’re in Live! select DATE, which will take you to NextDate so you can scroll through users who are playing Blind Date. These users who are actively playing are highlighted, so you can join their stream and play, too.

POF points out that you can still play NextDate, another virtual “speed dating” feature, without having to play Blind Date. Both NextDate and Blind Date are features created by The Meet Group, an interactive tech company that also owns dating apps MeetMe, Skout and Tagged. The Meet Group partnered with POF to provide NextDate and Blind Date on the POF platform. 

Blind Date Live Video Chat on POF

Image: POF

Dating apps have been a lifeline for many single people eager to connect with others while sheltering at home as coronavirus cases surge. Many have gravitated to virtual dating over these apps too, so they can filter out potential dates before they agree to take the step of meeting in person for a socially distanced date.

As a result, more dating apps have launched in-app video features, including POF. In March when the lockdowns in the U.S. began, the company launched its Live! streaming feature, which has become popular with users. According to The Meet Group, since that time NextDate has been played an average of 100,000 times per day across its suite of apps.

POF launched Blind Date after surveying its users, finding that 93% of singles want someone to fall in love with them for who they are, not what they look like, and that 90% of daters feel that chemistry, not attractiveness, is more important to long-term relationship success. In addition, 65% of United States-based Plenty of Fish members believe that social distancing and self-isolation have made them more open to blind dates than ever before. 

“The coronavirus pandemic has changed the way people date and our insights show that not only are our members exploring new features like video, but that they desire more meaningful connections,” said Plenty of Fish CEO, Malgosia Green. “With Blind Date, our members can enjoy a low pressure dating experience where chemistry is king.”

The Blind Date feature is free to all POF users. For more information on this service, check out our POF review.