Online Dating

Dating app Bumble just launched Night In, a new game feature that matches can play on a virtual date. In addition, the female-friendly dating app has revamped Boost, its mid-range paid service that now allows users unlimited swipes, “backtracking” and match extensions. 

Night In is an in-app game that’s meant to operate as an ice breaker. The feature provides a series of trivia questions that you and your Bumble date can answer together on a virtual date, according to The Verge. Bumble users can access Night In using the new icon in a chat message, where they can schedule the date ahead of time (as long as it’s between 6pm and midnight). Both participants will receive notification reminders ahead of the date.

LA Weekly unveiled a list of the best online dating sites for Trans singles, with OkCupid and My Transsexual Date among the top choices.

The list was created with attention to the specific needs of trans daters, notably in regard to safety, the magazine points out. While many mainstream dating platforms have a section or choices for transgender people, the transgender community is often subject to abuse from intolerant or ignorant cis users, or they are fetishized and treated as objects. This makes dating apps particularly tricky and anxiety-provoking for trans people.

Some online dating sites provide a safe space better than others, and My Transsexual Date and OkCupid are among them. 

Gay dating app Jack’d sent a notification to all of its users that read “All Waves Matter” as a marketing tactic to encourage them to engage on the app. The company came under fire because this was interpreted widely as insensitive to the Black Lives Matter movement.

On Jack’d, virtual “waves” can be sent between users to express interest in one another. According to Insider, when users of Jack’d got this notification, they were understandably upset at the reference to “All Lives Matter” – the phrase used by those who opposed the Black Lives Matter movement. 

Jack’d has long marketed itself as a more progressive dating app, noting on its website that it is the "most diverse community for gay, bi, trans, and queer people," and is used overwhelmingly by people of color, which make up about 80 percent of its user base. 

Dating app Bumble just reported revenue in Q4 of 2020 that exceeded expectations, prompting shares to jump as high as 5 percent. This news comes on the heels of the company’s stock market debut.

The company reported revenue of $165.6 million in the fourth quarter, a 31.1 percent increase for the first earnings report since the company went public, according to Reuters. (Analysts had originally expected revenue of $163.3 million.) Bumble expects the current quarter to generate between $163 million and $165 million as well. 

Reuters also reported that Bumble attributed the fourth quarter success to daters having “pent-up demand” for in-person dates again after a year of lockdowns in the wake of a global pandemic. They expect their numbers to grow as more people get vaccinated and restrictions are lifted.

Tinder and Everywell are giving away Covid Tests

To prepare for a surge of daters looking to meet in person, Tinder is giving away free at-home Covid test kits. The kits will be distributed on a first-come, first-served basis, and will be offered on March 20th at 7pm EST – the first day of spring.

In partnership with Everlywell, the maker of federally approved Covid-19 test kits, Tinder will give 1,000 kits to people (500 couples) who have made plans to meet up, according to CNN. The kits come with a nose swab, which you use and return back to the lab to wait for results to post online, usually 1-2 days later. 

The popular dating app company said that 40 percent of its customers under age 30 haven’t met in person because of fear of the coronavirus, so it’s hoping this will help ease some anxiety.

Garbo is a non-profit provider of Background Checks

Tinder announced that it will offer background checks on potential dates, a new measure that parent company Match Group has taken to improve safety for users of the app. Currently no dating app conducts criminal background checks on users, so this is a huge step forward for safety advocates.

Match Group has partnered with Garbo, a non-profit that provides background checks, and plans to debut an in-app background check feature on Tinder later this year according to The Washington Post. There are no details yet on the cost of the service.

Tracey Breeden, Match’s new head of safety and social advocacy, said in an interview: “This gives [Tinder users] an opportunity and that comfort level. Maybe they want more information before they have a video chat, maybe they want more information before they meet in person.”