Dating app eHarmony announced it has seen an 85% increase in registrations on its UK platform since the coronavirus lockdowns began earlier this year. The increase accounted for new registrations from January – June of this year, compared with the same time period last year.

April and May were especially active, up 50 percent and 48 percent respectively compared to 2019. Interestingly, at the beginning of lockdown in March, there was an 11 percent drop in registration which quickly bounced back. 

As lockdowns have eased in the past couple of months, new registrations for eHarmony have continued to increase. In June, the company saw a 77% year-on-year increase. 

Dating app Plenty of Fish has added a new game called Blind Date to POF Live!, a streaming platform for its users.

Blind Date is a twist on the traditional real-life experience, according to the company’s blog post. Instead of seeing your date for the first time when you meet, your virtual “blind dates” are blurred out so you can’t see who you’re chatting with – so personality and conversational skills are front and center. Each virtual date is timed, and as you chat longer, your date becomes less blurred. At the end of the timed chat or when you choose to message them, your blind date’s image is revealed.

In order to play Blind Date, you can join Live! via the POF home screen on the app. When you’re in Live! select DATE, which will take you to NextDate so you can scroll through users who are playing Blind Date. These users who are actively playing are highlighted, so you can join their stream and play, too.

Struck, a dating app focused around astrology, has launched this summer after some initial delay from Apple’s approval process.

Founded by a team of former Apple engineers made up of mostly women, including two women of color and one LGBTQ+ member, the app is notably different from mainstream dating apps in look and functionality. According to Tech Crunch, the app recommends matches based on detailed birth charts, not just your sun sign. So instead of photos being front and center, charts are the main draw. You can toggle back and forth between someone’s chart and their profile which includes a short bio, age, preferred pronouns, height and sexual preference. Nadine Jane is the company’s resident astrologer and expert.

Dating app OkCupid announced a redesign for its mobile app, which includes a new feature called Stacks to help users better sort through profiles.

Stacks organizes dater profiles into categories for easy browsing, according to CNet. Some of the categories available in the free version of the app include who’s nearby, online, or recommended. Another category the company highlighted that’s also available to all users is called “Question Pros,” and includes the profiles of daters who have answered a higher number of questions on the app than the average user. 

The Meet Group, parent company of dating apps like MeetMe, Skout, Tagged, GROWLr and LOVOO, has partnered with personal safety app UrSafe to offer users an array of new security options when they date. 

Through the “Date Night” feature on these dating apps, users will be prompted to opt in for a free 60-day premium subscription to UrSafe’s features, including Follow Me, Check In, Hands-Free SOS, and Fake Call. According to URSafe's press release, Follow Me and Check In allow the user to share locations with a trusted friend or family member while on the date, and the Hands-Free option lets users set personal trigger words that activate different responses within the app immediately, even if the user isn’t holding or touching their phone. Depending on the level of alert, UrSafe will connect the user to friends and family, or the authorities if needed. Fake Call can be activated as well, in case the user needs an “out” during the date. 

Facebook Redesign now Live to All

Image: Facebook

Social media giant Facebook has undergone its fifth major redesign since the company was founded, highlighting groups and invitations and taking the focus off of its news feed. This could help single users who aren’t necessarily on Facebook Dating, but want to connect with people in their circles.

The new redesign places groups front and center along with events, which are the two most heavily used features of Facebook. There are tens of millions of active Facebook groups according to the company, and more than 400 million users belong to a group that they “find meaningful,” according to the company’s blog post.