Dating Services

Image: OkCupid

Dating experts have long cautioned against discussing controversial subjects like politics on the first date, but a new partnership between OkCupid and the American Civil Liberties Union puts politics front and center in honor of Pride Month.

The dating service is introducing an ACLU #RightToLove profile badge to help users meet other members who support the non-profit. The badge will be displayed on the profile of every OkCupid user who publicly responds “yes” to the question “Do you support the ACLU?” For every user who receives the badge, OkCupid will donate $1 towards the ACLU (up to $50,000).

According to an OkCupid blog post, ninety percent of users who answered the question said yes — one of the highest agreement percentages across all of OkCupid’s iconic questions.

Following a successful launch on Facebook Messenger last year, Match is bringing its dating chatbot Lara to Google Assistant.

The AI matchmaker uses contextual understanding and speech recognition to provide advice and guidance for dating in the digital age. Lara first launched in France in 2016, then rolled out to users in the UK in 2017.

Match's vice-president of Northern Europe, Abbie Oguntade, spoke to The Drum earlier this year about the bot’s success and future trajectory. Lara has driven a 30% increase in visitors to Match’s landing page in Europe, she said, and subscriptions have “heavily improved” as a result. A team of around 15 engineers and tech experts are working out of Match’s innovation hub to improve the assistant’s AI features.

Dating app Badoo, which boasts a record 388 million users, has announced that it will be dropping the swiping feature from its dating app. The company plans to replace swiping with a new feature called Badoo Live which features live video.

According to TechCrunch, Badoo received feedback from users that they were getting tired of swiping, and were looking for a “more authentic” way to online date. The company wanted users to be able to get a better glimpse of potential matches before making decisions to meet, and thought the best way to do this would be through video.

Badoo Live will be similar to Facebook Live, in that users will be able to message their matches while recording their own live video, offering instant interaction to build connection. People can also watch video in playback mode, also similar to Facebook Live. Badoo will also offer a “Badoo Live” tab that users can click on to see any live videos happening that moment.

Singles in Europe and New Zealand just got a leg up in the romance game. Jdate, ChristianMingle, and Bumble - three of the biggest names in online dating - recently announced plans to expand their services abroad.

Spark Networks, parent company of Jdate and ChristianMingle, recently extended their services, languages, and local market support throughout Europe. Jdate is now available in German and Spanish, as well as English, Hebrew, and French. ChristianMingle is now available in French, Spanish, and German in addition to English. Both platforms will roll out Polish and Russian language support in the next few months.

Spark Networks attributes the expansions to user demand and says they are part of a broader initiative to further enable the global Jewish and Christian communities to try connect, communicate and find partners in their native language.

eHarmony is offering free communication to new and existing free members for Flag Day and this June weekend. It starts Thursday June 14^th and runs to end of day on Monday June 18^th for eHarmony members in the United States.

To participate in the eHarmony free communication event all you need is to sign up for a user account and create a profile. No credit card is required. Once you complete your profile and answer the personality questionnaire (which takes under 30 minutes) you will be sent your first set of matches (usually about 6). The people from these matches have been generated by the eHarmony matching algorithm to give you the best chance of creating a long term relationship. This is determined by a large number of factors found in your profile and questionnaire answers of both you and the match, and are based on the 29 dimensions of compatibility.

After you have looked over the matches profiles you can then proceed to send a message to any match you like. It is important to note, free communication events do not include profile photos. To view those you must have a paid membership.

eHarmony service can be accessed online a number of different ways. This include by their website at eHarmony.com and with the eHarmony phone and tablet apps which can be found at Google Play and at the Apple App Store.

For more about eHarmony, you can read our review.

Image: MillionaireMatch

MIllionaireMatch has been busy updating their app and website these pass few months. With over 3.6 million members worldwide it is one of the largest dating services in their niche.

A number of blogs has been added to the service, this includes "Celebrity Interviews" and "Luxury Lifestyle". The celebrity blog contains interviews of entrepreneurs, fashion designers, and TV personalities. The lifestyle blog contains articles on dating tips and posts on anything that only the wealthy could afford.

The dating app recently added the option for members to become certified as a Millionaire. This feature has been available on the website for a number of years now but with the recent update users of the dating app can now provide the required documents. Once verified a members profile is marked by a badge.