Online Dating

Dating app Hinge has partnered with popular taco chain Chipotle as well as Uber Eats to offer a new “Cuffing Season” menu and delivery service for daters. 

According to CNN, the new menu will include three special selections: “Day Date” which includes two entrees and a side of chips and salsa, “Date Night” featuring two entrees, a side of chips and queso and two Tractor drinks, and the “Hinge Date” for the solo riders, with one entrée, one side of chips and salsa, and one Tractor drink. According to Fox Business, these options will be available for free delivery or discounts at certain times during the promotion.

Dating app Bumble was informed earlier this year that its software had vulnerabilities that could expose the personal information of its 100 million users around the world.

Researchers from Independent Security Evaluators (ISE) found a problem with the app’s API that allowed them to access personal data for all of its users across platforms, including details such as their political leanings, astrological signs, education, height, weight, and even how far away they were in addition to the city they lived in, according to Threatpost. Another problematic issue for Bumble was that the research team was able to bypass the payment process for premium services, effectively accessing them for free. 

Image: okcupid

A new study by dating app OkCupid found that politics and the pandemic are the two biggest forces shaping the dating experience, giving us a clue about what dating will look like in 2021.

The company surveyed two million of its users to find out how 2020 is shaping their view of dating, and what if anything has changed. According to Mashable, OkCupid published its Future of Dating report based on its analysis of 450 million responses they received from these users. The biggest impact on dating has been political engagement and polarization – notably in an important election year. A majority of 64% of respondents said they preferred to date someone who shared their political views, up from previous years when politics did not play such a major factor in deciding whether or not to date someone. In fact, this number jumped 7% since 2019, and 60% of respondents said they wouldn’t even consider dating someone with opposing political views.

Dating app Bumble introduced a new update for its “unmatch” feature to help prevent bad actors from trying to hide on the app.

According to Tech Crunch, this new feature is a safety upgrade for users who want to report abusers on the app. Before, it was easy for a user leaving abusive messages to hide from their match by pressing the unmatch option, because the conversation thread would disappear from both users’ message history. This made it harder for people to report abuse on the app – there was no digital trail.

A new study found that people who suffer from anxiety and depression, especially now during the pandemic, benefit from using dating apps – and those helped were mainly women.

According to Scientific Times, researchers from Ryerson University in Canada analyzed symptoms of social anxiety and “the use, motivation, and interaction associated with dating apps.” 

The researchers found that as lockdowns took place and people were physically isolated from one another, women turned to dating apps to feel connection and ease symptoms like depression. Many singles have felt increasingly disconnected during the pandemic, with some looking to dating apps for a quick quarantine partner as an alternative to being alone.

Dating service Match has quietly added some impressive new features to help singles stay in better communication, especially as the pandemic forces people to stay at home.

The app now allows users to message with their best recommendations each day without having to pay or subscribe to a paid service, which is an interesting move since previously Match members always had to subscribe to be able to send messages to other members no matter how well they matched. This move brings Match closer to it's sister brands like Tinder and POF (all are owned by Match Group) which uses the freemium model. These popular dating services allow their users to message for free but, users have to pay to upgrade their account to enjoy premium features like finding out who has liked their profile.

In addition, the app has rolled out some other key features, including: