Match Group

Consumer Reports has decided to get into the love game. The non-profit organization has been around since 1936, and typically reviews consumer satisfaction with products and services, but now it wants to know about dating apps, and how satisfied customers appear to be.

We all know where this is going. Well, maybe not.

Consumer Reports found two interesting and diametrically opposed results. First, consumers hate online dating with a passion, even more than tech support services, which are notoriously poor performers. Those surveyed didn’t rate any service as more than average as far as overall satisfaction. OkCupid got the best ratings of all online dating services, including Tinder, but it got a reader score of only 56. (Tinder was second with a 52 rating.) Reader scores were evaluated by a number of factors, including messaging and search features, privacy settings, the ease of use and sign-up process, as well as quality and quantity of matches.

In 2017, it’s impossible to imagine the hunt for a partner happening without your other beloved partner: your smartphone.

Those ever-present devices are our constant companions, with us from the moment we make a connection on a dating app, to the loved-up selfies we post on Instagram, to the shocking break-up texts we forward to our friends. Technology influences every aspect of modern love lives.

Match's seventh annual ‘Singles in America’ study took a look at exactly how tech and dating overlapped in 2016, revealing a few strategies for succeeding in love in 2017.

Tinder’s reign won’t let up. The dating app is not only the most recognizable in the industry, it’s also one of the most successful. With constant feature updates, like 2015’s introduction of the ‘Super Like’, Tinder ensures it remains on top of the game.

Two of the most recent updates have proved to be highly beneficial for the app. During a panel at this year’s SXSW, co-founder Sean Rad shared that Tinder has matched some 250,000 transgender users since unveiling new gender identity options last November. The company also increased its community education and refined its approach to preventing harassment.

“We have a great algorithm that can help, but no algorithm can solve humans,” Rad explained. “We were taken aback by how complex identity is. It’s a very complex area and, at the same time, Tinder is extremely simple.”

Wednesday 8 March was International Women's Day, an event celebrated around the world to commemorate the struggle for women's rights.

Each year, the day is an opportunity to reflect on gender issues, inequalities, and opportunities for growth. The 2017 theme focused particularly on the latter, perhaps inspired by the surge in activism we’ve seen in recent months. The theme, #BeBoldForChange, called on everyone to step up and help create a better, more inclusive world.

The call was not just for individuals. Businesses also took part in celebrating women this year, including two popular dating apps.

According to website Tech Crunch, Tinder has been offering a dating service for its most elite users for at least six months without announcing its existence.

“Tinder Select” is just as it sounds – a dating service for those Tinder users who are high profile and the most desirable, such as celebrities, supermodels and CEOs, so they can have access to date and message other high profile users and bypass the normal user matches.

But before you get excited to join and flirt with the A-listers, you can’t. Or at least most of us can’t because Tinder has to invite you first.

About Singles in America

Now in its seventh year, Match’s annual Singles in America study asks singles across the United States to share how it feels, what it looks like, and what it means to be single today. More than 5,500 singles were surveyed in 2016. Here’s what they had to say.

Gender and feminism are on everyone’s minds. The resurgence of the feminist movement isn’t just the subject of scholarly articles and fodder for celebrity interviews - it’s changing the dating landscape in 2017.

“The annual Singles in America study has once again demonstrated new emerging trends including men’s overwhelmingly positive view of feminism and feminists, in the boardroom and the bedroom,” says Dr. Helen Fisher, biological anthropologist and Chief Scientific Advisor to Match. “We’ve captured the great spring forward in gender equality.”