Technology

Gay dating apps are leading the way when it comes to encouraging users to disclose their STI status when they use dating apps, according to public health experts. 

Health disclosures on dating apps have taken on new importance since the pandemic took hold, with more users asking potential matches about their vaccination and infection status before agreeing to meet in person. Because of the recent urgency and importance in keeping each other safe from Covid-19, and the rising cases of STIs, mainstream dating apps like Tinder and Bumble are now looking for effective ways of encouraging users to disclose their sexual health status, too. 

Gay dating apps have long been ahead of the curve on this, encouraging users to disclose their STI status up front in the name of public health, according to the National Post.

Match Group announced that the company will go carbon neutral by March of 2022 thanks to its purchase of offsets to carbon emissions, leading the way for dating apps to address issues of climate change.

The company announced the move in a press release, noting that it commits to offsetting its carbon footprint going forward, though the offset purchase made lasts only two years. Match Group invested in Hyundai Green Power Corporation, which captures and recycles waste gases to generate electricity through its Steel Waste Energy Cogeneration Project. (The site’s steel mill reuses waste gases and what remains is used by the project’s power plant.)  

When that energy is repurposed, it supplies power to the local grid in Dangjin, South Korea, instead of that grid relying on fossil fuels. This means a reduction of 1.8 million tons of carbon emissions per year, according to Match Group. 

Tinder just debuted a new ad campaign in time for the holidays, one of the busiest times of the year for dating app users. The company hired creative agency Mischief@NoFixedAddress to appeal to young Gen Z daters, its target audience.

According to The Drum, the new ad tagline is “you’re not for everyone,” and highlights in a funny way some unusual passions of singles that not everyone will find endearing. The ad is meant to assure its users that no matter how unique their interests are, there will always be someone who’s into the same things.

The first ad features a woman doing astral projection from her living room floor surrounded by candles who loses her zen focus when a roommate wanders in.

Bumble announced that it is exploring how to employ the metaverse and Web 3.0 into a relaunch of its Bumble BFF platform. It also added language badges as a new feature to help users connect. 

The move towards interactive experiences seems to be where dating apps are headed, driven by younger Gen Z daters who prefer game-like experiences to swiping. Tinder recently announced that it was testing an avatar-based virtual experience called Single Town where users could meet each other in real time on different online spaces, like “bars” before agreeing to meet in person.

The rising popularity of cryptocurrency is also a factor, as Bumble has indicated it intends to create a crypto goods economy to monetize the new platform, as has Tinder.

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.

Seniors are a growing demographic of online daters, and they are flocking to popular dating apps, including Tinder, according to a recent study.

Independent insurance group Choice Mutual found that about one third of seniors who have dated in the last five years have looked to dating apps to meet people. In addition, two thirds of those using dating apps have found relationships with someone they met through the platforms, according to Forbes. 

Some top choices of apps were Tinder, Match and Hinge, with 35 percent of respondents saying Tinder was the platform where they met the person they were dating. Twenty-eight percent said they had the best luck on Match, 25 percent had found someone either on Hinge or Plenty of Fish, and 24 percent had found their significant other on Bumble.