Customer Service

Down Detector for Tinder

Tinder users were frustrated earlier this month when they tried to message and browse matches on the app, but instead got recurring error messages. The app was down for several hours starting at around 5:00am PST on Tuesday January 8, according to reports.

Users across Europe, the U.K. and the U.S. experienced problems sending and receiving messages, as well as server connection errors according to news website CNET. Some users also reported that they were unable to login at all.

Online dating company eHarmony will be introducing a new feature to try and prevent its members from ghosting each other on the site.

According to an exclusive in Yahoo! Finance, the anti-ghosting feature is a chat bot which uses A.I. technology to assess activity between members, as well as pulling information from profiles to help encourage conversation. If the feature notes that you and a match were messaging for several days or weeks and then stopped, it will prompt each of you with a message like “hey, this person stopped talking to you. Say something.”

The chat bot also provides specific questions based on the information it can gather from each of your profiles. For instance, if the chat bot notices your match likes certain TV shows, or old school jazz music, the chat bot will prompt you to ask her about her interests. For example, it might say “ask her about Game of Thrones,” encouraging you to not only message your match but provide you with a conversation starter.

Image: CoffeeMeetsBagel

Dating App Coffee Meets Bagel no longer requires a Facebook account for users to login to the app. Now, customers can sign up using their mobile number instead, bypassing Facebook completely.

The change was effective on August 20^th.

Typically when customers sign up to a new online dating platform, they have to verify that they are a real person (to avoid the proliferation of fake accounts). Facebook has typically been part of this verification process, and provides an easy way for users to pull photos, profile information, and link personal connections with other networks of friends.

Tinder crashed for several hours on April 4^th after Facebook implemented new privacy and security restrictions, frustrating and confusing millions using the dating app.

Facebook has been facing increased scrutiny from the U.S. government after discovering major security breaches of its members’ personal information by third parties. Most recently, Facebook faced serious accusations after it was discovered that prominent research firm Cambridge Analytica stole Facebook user information from about 87 million users, including information about their political beliefs, without their knowledge or consent.

Facebook has since taken action to correct course, implementing more restrictions on its third party advertisers and partners to limit the amount of information they can access. Facebook previously allowed apps like Tinder to request user data automatically, but now that isn’t the case. Unfortunately for Tinder, this meant its users faced login errors and weren’t able to access the app at all.

Match Group has a new CEO, and she’s determined to provide a better online dating experience for women. In a recent interview with Marketwatch, Mandy Ginsberg revealed that Tinder will be debuting a new feature that lets women choose whether or not they want to make the first move. She has female-friendly plans for their other properties as well, including Match and OkCupid.

Tinder’s new feature competes directly with dating app Bumble, which has seen incredible growth since its debut. Bumble differs slightly in that women automatically get to make the first move, rather than choosing.

Ginsberg has also launched a new campaign for OkCupid that “emphasizes shared hobbies over hookups.”

Dating app Momo, China’s answer to Tinder, has been a popular dating app among the country’s singles with a record 75 million users. But in recent weeks, Momo seems to be expanding out of the dating business and into something more lucrative.

For its latest update, Momo executives decided to supplement the app's location-based dating service that matches people through swiping and messaging. Now, the app offers a live-streaming function, catering to music lovers and even musicians themselves. The update allows users to watch their favorite musicians perform live, as well as giving them the ability to interact with the musicians.