General News

Say Allo, a smart dating app that debuted in the United States in 2018, is making its way into the Canadian market. The “relationship discovery” platform harnesses the power of artificial intelligence and a continuous learning algorithm to help singles foster meaningful connections for long-term relationships. The app is now available in Montreal.

Say Allo relies on proprietary SmartSwipe™ technology. By combining AI and face-mapping technologies, SmartSwipe™ learns about your behaviors, interests, preferences. The more time you spend on the app, the more useful knowledge it gleans. SmartSwipe™ is so advanced it can even detect the facial features you prefer in a partner.

Popular dating apps including Tinder, OkCupid, Happn, and Grindr have come under fire from consumer rights groups and privacy coalitions for sharing personal data of their users with third parties, specifically advertisers.

A study was published this month from the Norwegian Consumer Council that showed 10 apps were collecting sensitive information including a user’s exact location from GPS tracking, sexual orientation, religious and political beliefs, drug use and other information and sharing it with at least 135 different third party companies, according to several reports. Some of those businesses included household names like Google and Facebook, but also lesser-known adtech companies such as OpenX, MoPub, and AppNexus. The study only looked at apps on Android phones, according to NPR.

This type of data collection and sharing violates the European Union’s rules to protect user data online under the General Data Protection Regulation.

Image: Pipsay

Four months after Facebook Dating’s launch, consumer insights platform Piplsay has released a report on the long-awaited feature. Piplsay polled 21,242 Americans to find out how successful Facebook’s foray into online dating has been so far. The short answer: it’s complicated.

Dating was introduced at Facebook’s annual F8 developers’ conference in 2018. After initially launching in a handful of countries abroad, the service finally made its US debut in September 2019. News outlets and dating industry competitors were quick to comment on the launch in exhaustive detail, but it appears that Facebook’s clout and the media’s seemingly-infinite coverage have not been enough to catapult Dating into the industry’s upper echelon.

It’s been decades since The Dating Game and The Newlywed Game were primetime hits, but if a new subscription streaming service has its way, the dating show genre is about to enter a renaissance. Quibi's upcoming series The Hot Drop will take an interactive approach to reality dating entertainment by giving viewers the power to decide who should and shouldn't live happily ever after. ITV America’s Sirens Media and ITV Studios Entertainment will produce.

Each week, The Hot Drop will share a profile of an eligible single on the Quibi app. Interested viewers will respond by submitting videos to apply for the opportunity to be a contestant and date the single of the week. On Wednesdays, the series will name the top three candidates and let viewers vote to choose who goes on the adventure. The candidate with the most votes will meet the featured single on Friday and go on an over-the-top first date while the audience watches in the Quibi app. One single’s journey ends when they decide at the end of the week if they want to continue dating their match “off the app” or remain single.

Dating app Hinge is looking to capitalize on the popularity of its new mascot Hingie. The company just launched an online store selling Hingie-related products, according to AdWeek.

Hinge launched a new marketing campaign in 2019 saying that the dating app was “designed to be deleted” to promote its focus on long-term relationships. The company created TV and web spots featuring a cuddly-looking square named Hingie that proceeds towards its own demise as a couple who meet over Hinge get closer, until they finally delete the app – and Hingie along with it.

Actress Sharon Stone was blocked on Bumble in late December, and took to Twitter to air her concerns publicly. Bumble responded and tried to restore her profile, but days later, Stone still wasn’t able to access it.

Stone signed up for Bumble to start dating again, according to reports. She was surprised when the female-friendly app quickly shut her profile down, claiming it was fake. She then posted about it on Twitter and Instagram, along with the screenshot of the message from Bumble saying she was blocked.

“I went on the @bumble dating [site] and they closed my account. 👁👁 Some users reported that it couldn’t possibly be me!” she tweeted. “Hey @bumble, is being me exclusionary ? 🤷🏼‍♀️ Don’t shut me out of the hive 🐝”