Studies

Bumble says that singles are turning to dating apps more than ever, evidenced by its recent finding that over a billion matches were made on its app in 2021, a 25 percent increase from the previous year.

The dating app also shared that over 9 billion messages were exchanged globally, up nearly 40 percent from 2020, showing that dating app usage during lockdowns wasn’t a temporary thing. Rather, once restrictions lifted, people were more eager to login to the app and start looking for matches as well as virtual date, and were also eager to use dating apps to get back out there and meet matches in real life.  

Bumble said that the highest number of message exchanges were between October and early November, just prior to the holiday season. It’s also worth noting that this was just prior to the emergence of the highly contagious Omicron variant of Covid, which has led to global lockdowns and restrictions once again. Still, the company doesn’t see things slowing down as we enter into dating’s “high season,” between New Year’s and Valentine’s Day.

Match’s latest Singles In America study found that a majority of daters are looking for maturity and stability in a relationship, a result of people feeling lonely and isolated from the pandemic and longing for deeper connection.

According to the study, only 11 percent of singles want to date casually, while 62 percent say they seek more meaningful, committed relationships. And 65 percent are eager to find a relationship within the next year, particularly younger singles – 81 percent of Gen Z daters and 76 percent of Millennials.

Match also found that 83 percent of singles said they want a partner who is emotionally mature, and 76 percent said they want a partner who is looking to get married. This is up from 58 percent just two years ago, and interestingly, younger adults and men are most interested in marriage.

Green dating is becoming a trend among UK daters, according to a new study by dating app Bumble.

In recent months, Bumble added a feature for daters to include values in their profiles, not only to highlight their priorities to other daters, but also to support a cause, including for environmental, social or political justice. Each time a user sends a message to another user, the company will donate to select organizations that work for these causes. 

According to Bumble, 27 percent of UK users selected “environmentalism” as their highest value.

The attitudes of Indian singles towards dating, sex and intimacy are changing as a result of the global pandemic. Interestingly, their parents’ attitudes are shifting along with them.

According to Mint, a recent survey of Bumble users pointed towards this cultural shift, with 34 percent of respondents from India saying they were “more open to exploration” when it comes to sex, ahead of users in the U.S., Australia, Canada and the U.K. This finding was part of a larger study of users across different countries taken over the summer, including over 2,000 participants from India.

A majority of Indians – 65 percent – said the pandemic has changed their approach to sex and intimacy. Almost one in three respondents (33 percent) said they have started living with someone they met on a dating app since the second wave of Covid hit India in March and lockdowns began, according to Mint.

Image: Happn

Happn, one of the most popular dating apps, is launching new voice features to help its users better connect.

According to India TV News, the new features will be rolled out globally over the next few weeks. One of the new features allows users to add an audio note up to two minutes long in their profile, so that other users can get an idea of their personality from their voice. Happn is also rolling out an audio chat feature that allows people who match to talk with each other directly over the app. 

The third audio feature is audio feed, where Happn will offer a feed of profiles in which users will be able to hear the voices of potential matches before seeing the rest of their profiles (like their photos, bios, etc.) – emphasizing the importance of the connection someone feels to a person’s voice, instead of just viewing their photos or interests. It’s an intriguing new way for users to assess their matches.

Tinder released a new study of dating app users in India, finding that their attitudes and behavior are changing, particularly in the last year as people grappled with dating during a pandemic. The company found that users engaged with each other over the app 32 percent longer compared to this time last year, and nearly half had video chatted with a match.

The company’s Future of Dating report also found that individual engagement on its app had increased – with swipes up 11 percent and matches up 42 percent per user over the same period.

The study points out that many of India’s dating app users are younger and aren’t necessarily looking for anything serious, a shift from the traditional marriage-focused dating culture. In fact, 62 percent of respondents said they wanted to “see where things go” when it comes to meeting new people and weren’t comfortable conforming to society’s expectations of dating.