Chispa, a dating app for Latino singles, has partnered with non-partisan organization Voto Latino to encourage more Latinos to go to the polls.

The dating app launched a co-branded election hub on its platform, offering users information on how to register to vote as well as early voting, mail-in voting, and candidate details according to the press release. Chispa said it created the hub to boost voter registration and participation in the Latino community and will in turn support Voto Latino with a contribution toward their voter drive efforts.

Eighty percent of Chispa users are between 18 and 34 years old, a prime demographic as both political parties target younger voters. Voto Latino provides information on registering to vote (which varies from state to state), as well as polling location information and early voting options.

Image: OkCupid

OkCupid has added a range of new politically-focused questions to its platform along with politically-themed badges ahead of the 2024 US election.

According to CNN, the new questions focus on voter behavior and help users choose more compatible profiles. Some questions include: “Are you voting in the 2024 presidential election?” and “What’s the most important issue to you in the 2024 presidential election?”

Other questions refer to whether singles are willing to bridge the political divide, such as: “Is it a dealbreaker if your date is voting for a different candidate than you in the 2024 presidential election?”

Dating apps may be inadvertently helping contribute to greater income inequality, according to a new economic study.

According to The Independent, researchers at the Federal Reserve Banks of St. Louis and Dallas and Haverford College found that at least half of the rise in income inequality between 1980 and 2020 can be attributed to changing preferences and the rise of online dating. Because of how easy it is to filter based on preferences, people are more likely now to marry someone in the same socioeconomic bracket than they were before.

According to The Independent, researchers specifically tracked education, race, income, skill level and age of recently married people between 2008 and 2021, as dating apps became more popular. The findings suggest that people are marrying someone more like themselves than they were likely to in earlier years, which the researchers have tied to half of the increase in household income inequality during the same period. When higher-earning people couple up and lower earners do as well, it grows the disparity.

New gay dating apps like Scruff and Archer are positioning themselves to capture a bigger portion of the LGBTQ+ online dating market as Grindr complaints and technical issues rise.

Grindr has long been the most popular dating app for gay daters, but recently people have posted complaints on social media and online forums, saying that they are experiencing technical issues, not getting access to the features they paid for, and other problems, according to Mashable.

This year, Grindr has experienced significant bugs and periods of downed service. At the same time, it has asked its users to pay more to access certain popular features, including limiting both “taps” and “explore” features and requiring them to buy subscriptions.

The new dating app industry code of conduct established by the Australian government has taken effect as of October 1st, requiring dating apps to adhere to certain standards in an effort to better protect their users.

The new code requires dating apps to make “prominent and transparent” to users how to report someone or file a complaint on their platforms, according to Associated Press. The code also requires dating apps to detect potential incidents of online harm, and that the accounts of offenders are terminated.

A pervasive problem is that users who have been blocked on one platform can join another, so the reporting process is key. Communication Minister Michelle Rowland said in a statement: “If there are grounds to ban a particular individual from utilizing one of those platforms, if they’re banned on one platform, they’re blocked on all platforms,” according to AP.

Dating app After just launched in Austin, Texas, and is aimed at ending the pervasive problem of ghosting on dating apps.

According to Tech Crunch, when someone “unmatches” a person on After, they are required to let the app know why before they can keep swiping. It can be for any number of reasons – from distance issues to just a general vibe of non-interest, and the app will send a kind message to the other user in return. The idea is to give the person who was ghosted some closure with a reason why the other person is no longer interested, while also reminding them this one match experience isn’t an indication of who they are or what they are worth.

For two people who matched on the app and neglect to message each other, the app will end the match. If one person doesn’t respond to a match’s message, the app will nudge them to send a message. If they still don’t reply to a conversation, the app unmatches them and the user who didn’t respond can’t use the platform until they provide a reason for letting the match expire.