Features

Dating app Bumble is refocusing its brand and has announced significant layoffs following a disappointing fourth quarter earnings report.

The popular female-forward dating company plans to cut 30% of its staff, or 350 employees, and revamp its app to focus on its friend-finding feature.

Bumble also plans to relaunch the app in the second quarter and offer a “compelling modern experience” with a “stronger appeal to younger users” according to Axios, citing Bumble CEO Lidiane Jones’s remarks in the company’s earnings call. The new features focus on making profile-building easier, with “insights on profile pictures, and better app performance” according to Axios.

Tinder is expanding its AI-powered ID Verification feature to the U.S., U.K., Brazil, and Mexico, making it available by this summer.

According to the company’s press release, the new safety feature requires users to upload a video selfie and a valid Driver’s License or Passport. The AI-powered feature will then check to see if the face in the video selfie matches both the photo ID and the user’s profile photos, and will check the date of birth on the official ID.

The new feature adds another layer of security to using Photo Verification alone, where video selfies are compared to photos. Now, the official ID is also checked as part of the process.

Match Group signed a partnership deal with OpenAI’s ChatGPT-4, which includes over 1,000 ChatGPT Enterprise licenses for company employees to help with their work-related tasks. Match Group noted that the press release announcing the move was written by ChatGPT.

While Match Group has been heavily focused on using AI to develop new features for its platform, this move incorporates it into the company’s internal workflow. Employees will use ChatGPT-4 to aid with coding, design, analysis, to build templates, and other tasks.

It will also help with marketing communications, although the press release is a bit over the top. As Tech Crunch notes, even though releases are designed to create buzz and excitement, Match’s latest announcement is heavy with love analogies and puns, which makes for a groan-inducing read.

A federal lawsuit was filed in a San Francisco court against Match Group, alleging that the dating app company creates apps that hook users with promises of love, and then push people to pay money to keep swiping.

According to NPR, the lawsuit was brought by six plaintiffs in New York, California, and Florida, alleging that Match Group “gamifies” its apps to “transform users into gamblers locked in a search for psychological rewards that Match makes elusive on purpose.”

Match Group owns popular apps Tinder, Hinge, Match, OkCupid and The League, among others.

The lawsuit goes on to claim that Match Group’s apps are designed to turn users into addicts who keep swiping; and keep purchasing subscriptions and paid features to be able to keep searching for matches. The plaintiffs also claim that the company has violated state and federal consumer protection laws and engaged in false advertising.

Image: Tinder

Tinder has updated its community guidelines with AI-based warnings that detect problematic messages and behavior of users and issue warning messages to adhere to the community guidelines, or they will be removed from the app.

The new warnings, according to Tinder’s press release, center around three categories: authenticity, respect and inclusivity.

The warnings come as an update to the Community Guidelines, which serve as the basis for expected behavior of users on the app. They aim to protect users against harassment, and “advertising and impersonation,” according to the release.

Image: Bumble

Dating app Bumble launched Deception Detector, an AI-based feature that aims to cut down on bots and fake profiles.

According to ZD Net, the new feature leverages the machine learning-based technology to help identify fake, scam or spam profiles on the app before the user comes into contact with them. The feature can assess the authenticity of a profile and, according to Bumble’s test, supported automatically blocking 95 percent of accounts identified as spam or scam by the company.

Bumble was quick to add that the AI-based feature will be used in conjunction with “dedicated human support” for added safety for its members.

Bumble also said in its release that within the first two months of the technology’s introduction, the platform saw member reports of spam, scam, and fake accounts reduced by 45%.