POF Error Message

We started getting reports that the dating service Plenty of Fish (aka POF) was experiencing some downtime on Thursday July 28th at 6pm EST for about an hour and then the issue seemed to fix itself.

That little blip was a precursor of things to come as by 2am on July 29th both the POF website and apps went down again and stayed down until about 2pm the same day. Most users seem to experience about 12 hours of downtime with others still reporting issues as late as 11pm that Friday night. During Friday afternoon some users experienced POF to be up and working for a bit and then all of a sudden going down again.

SwoonMe is a new dating app that offers users avatars and audio clips in place of real photos and videos to encourage “less superficial” interactions, according to the company.

The app requires users to take a selfie and creates an avatar based on the photo. According to Tech Crunch, the user then records an audio clip for their profile, where they can share what they are looking for in a partner as well as give a brief introduction to who they are. Users can also answer questions, like what kind of relationship they are looking for and what their love language is. SwoonMe’s platform also encourages voice messages and ice breaker games to get to know each other, rather than messaging and photo sharing. 

The more a user communicates with a match, the more the profile photo underneath the avatar is revealed - until you can see the actual person. 

Iranian singles have a new state-approved dating app to help them find spouses, but so far, young people aren’t so excited about using it. The app is called Hamdan, which means “companion” in Persian, and was developed by a team from the Islamic Propaganda Organization.

According to the BBC, people living in Iran use dating apps, but Hamdan is the first app to be legally approved by the government. The app’s technology works like a regular dating app using AI to better understand what users are looking for and to help find matches, but the process goes beyond just matching. The app says it is “only for bachelors seeking permanent marriage,” according to reports.

Users can’t just sign up – they first have to verify their identity and undergo a psychological test before they can use the app. And when a match is found, there is a more circuitous route to actually meeting each other in person. The app introduces families, not just the singles who match, and it also provides a so-called “service consultant” to not only introduce the families, but “accompany” the couple even after they get married, for a period of four years.

Dating app Hinge is doubling down on its “designed to be deleted” tagline to offer a series of new ads featuring users deleting their profiles after finding love.

According to Ad Age, there will be four spots, each featuring a humorous take on a Hinge user trying to “break up” with their old Hinge profiles because they have met someone special and no longer want to date. The global campaign was created with creative agency partner Opinionated.

One ad shows a young man at a restaurant surrounded by his alter ego profile pictures, including one of him with a surfboard, holding a dog, and one where an ex-girlfriend had been marked over with a sharpie. He’s breaking the news to them that despite the fact that they created “the perfect profile” he would have to delete them. The alter egos think he’s joking, asking if he is joining a monastery, but he reveals he met someone special and they have to go – at which point they disappear.

Dating app My Transsexual Date has announced it will be officially changing the name of its app to My Transgender Date.

This isn’t the first time the company changed the name of its app, in light of an evolving discourse on how transgender people would like to be identified. In a blog post the company shared, the app began as “My Ladyboy Date” when it launched in 2013, catering to a mostly Asian audience, and later changed to My Transsexual Date to appeal to a global audience. 

Founder Cyril Mazur wrote in a post announcing the move that when the company changed its name to My Transsexual Date, they did consider using the word “transgender” instead, but Mazur found it to be too Western-centric. He noted that in Latin America, which has a big trans population, the word “transexual” is used more than the word “transgenero” (transgender in Spanish), and he felt this was more inclusive among the global population.  

Bumble is set to debut Bumble Brew in New York City, its first brick and mortar branded cafe for people to meet or network while they eat, drink coffee, or share a bottle of wine.

The dating company had plans to debut its Brew location last year, but it got pushed back due to the pandemic. With Covid numbers dropping as vaccination numbers increase, and with the success of its IPO earlier this year, Bumble is rolling out the red carpet for the café’s debut and adding more items to the menu.

Bumble Brew is a partnership between Pasqual Jones from Delicious Hospitality Group and the dating platform, according to Bloomberg. The restaurant will be located next to Pasqual Jones on Kenmare Street in downtown Manhattan, and has been tweaked since its initial concept from “date-friendly,” shareable foods to a more robust menu, according to the partners.