Dating Services

Update 2020-03-30: Please note that POF has announced a new feature available by the end of April called POF Live. It allows live video streaming and private 1 on 1 video chatting (for those who play NextDate). More information can be found here: Plenty of Fish Adds Livestream Feature

Update 2019-08-03: POF has since removed the video calling functionality in their app from Conversation Powers.

Plenty Of Fish made 2017 the year of getting back to basics. While other dating services introduced features seemingly designed to require less communication (looking at you, Tinder Reactions), POF has been all about the chitchat.

First, the company sponsored Conversation Nation, which it claims is the largest study ever conducted on the importance of conversation in the search for love. Inspired by what it learned from the survey, POF went on to update its iOS and Android apps with a new feature called Spark designed to help singles break the ice easily.

"With more conversations than any other dating app, Plenty of Fish is focused on bringing conversation back to singles," Hesam Hosseini, POF’s CEO, said at the time. "In the short time we've been testing Spark, we've seen a 15 percent increase in conversations. Given our scale, this can result in an increase of hundreds of thousands of conversations happening every day on the app, leading to more dates and more relationships – and it is just our first step to bring the art of conversation back to dating."

Recipient
Adult FriendFinder

For 2018 the Editors Top Pick - Sexy award recipient is Adult FriendFinder. This hookup site is a very popular adult dating site that has been online for over 20 years. They have tens of millions of members who are straight, gay and transgender. Thanks to advance detection system AFF has a high percentage of real members especially compared to other similar services.

Adult Friend Finder is a very busy community. Men and women who join this service are actively looking for a partner so many members have posted photos and videos. Currently AFF has over 98 million photos from members. Communication is key and this can be done either via email messages or by instant message (which has video).

To find the type of members you are looking for, AFF offers an easy to use search interface. The basic search is a good place to start but as you continue to use the service you will want to use the advanced search to really tailor the results and find those good matches.

Recipient
eHarmony

For 2018 we once again awarded eHarmony the Editor's Top Pick - Match System award. eHarmony started in 2000 and for almost 2 decades has been matching singles. They have become one of the largest dating services and can now not only be accessed by their website, but through phone apps as well.

eHarmony has spend millions of dollars over the years on their matchmaking algorithm. This year they have made a number of excellent updates to their dating service to not only steam line the user experience but allow users to understand why they are compatible with their matches.

Popular dating app Tinder is testing a new feature called Feed, aimed at providing users more insight to their matches, and to help spark conversations.

Feed consists of a real-time feed of social media posts from a user’s matches, specifically posts from Instagram and Spotify. The idea is that users can look at what their matches are virtually sharing moment by moment to get a better idea of what they are like – what they are listening to at any given time, where they are, and what they like doing.

The new feature will appear as a tab in the messages screen, according to website Tech Crunch. Users can respond directly to posts in their Feed without having to go back to the profile screen, making it easy to interact. Instead of having to be too descriptive in the profile, or thinking of something unique to say as an introduction, users can let their Instagram photos and playlists speak for themselves.

Recipient
OkCupid

The 2018 Editor's award for Top Pick - Innovative goes to OkCupid. OkCupid is a dating service that really wants to match you with the right person. With OkCupids Match Questions feature it allows users to post questions for other members to anwser. You can even sepecify to have 1 or more questions to be answered before they can send you an actually message. Privacy is very important OkCupid. Members don't know if you have ever visited their profiles unless you like them or send them a message.

Speaking of messages, OkCupid revamped their member communication system recently. Gone is the traditional dating messaging system where you can message any member you want. With the new Conversations feature members can only message and/or read messages from someone else if they have either sent them a message first or expressed interest. This feature has increased matches on OkCupid by over 30% while decreasing unwanted messages by almost 70%.

Any company needs to evolve in order to stay relevant, and given the especially speedy pace at which the world of online dating advances, it’s even more important for companies in the industry to regularly innovate.

OkCupid has remained a leading name in the market since its launch 13 years ago. But that also makes it one of the older names, facing stiff competition from younger upstarts like Tinder and Bumble.

To ensure it remains a go-to for singles in an increasingly saturated industry, OkCupid has announced a major update to its messaging system. Open messaging - which allows any user to contact any other user without restrictions - will be eliminated a favor of a system more akin to those of Bumble and Tinder, in which only users who have indicated interest in each other can easily access each other's conversations.