Communication

Tinder is heading in a bold new direction that includes regenerative AI and a “fresh and new feel” according to its chief product officer Mark van Ryswyk.

At the Reuters Momentum Festival, the CPO shared that he and his team have been studying common user problems and have identified three key elements to focus on: realness, respect and relevancy. Van Ryswyk said on stage: “There’s an opportunity for us to deliver something by end of year that’s going to start to tackle these things,” he added.

According to Fast Company, Match Group refused to expand on these comments, but the company has been focused on rolling out premium features and appealing to its fastest-growing market Gen Z.

A massive leak of 2.3 million dating app records, including personal information from over 260,000 dating app users and 969,571 images and private chats were exposed to the public, according to SC Media.

The data breach included extremely sensitive information, including sexually explicit private photos, recollections of sexual experiences, and details about previous sexual encounters that were tied to dating app user profiles, according to Hack Read, a security news website.

The leak primarily affected users of 419 Dating – Chat & Flirt app, which is based in Hong Kong but has users around the world. Other apps were also compromised, including Meet You – Local Dating App and Speed Dating App for American by MyCircle Network Corp, but these are thought to be linked to the same group of developers as 419 Dating.

Image: Bumble

Dating app Bumble has partnered with the much buzzed-about Warner Bros. movie Barbie, which premieres in July in theaters across the world.

Bumble’s partnership is to promote its new Compliments feature using images of the movie’s stars to bolster confidence and encourage people to try it out, according to marketing news website Campaign Asia. In addition to images, the app will have pre-recorded messages from the stars to motivate users to engage positively with each other.

Barbie, played by Margot Robbie, has a dialog bubble on Bumble’s app that states: “your taste in movies? Sensational. Now it’s time to show them how sensational your Compliments are.” Other stars featured include Simu Liu (Ken #2) and Issa Rae (President Barbie), and Ryan Gosling (Ken #1).

The way dating apps are being used is changing, with more people looking for validation, friendship, and online connection rather than dates.

According to a new study by Stanford Medicine, dating apps are now showing similarities to social media platforms: using them for distraction and entertainment as well as searching for love. Among the 1,387 Tinder users (aged 17 to 84) surveyed for the study, half said they weren’t interested in meeting someone from a dating app offline, and nearly two-thirds were already married or described themselves as “in a relationship.”  

Because of the changing motivations, people’s experiences on dating apps vary widely, according to the researchers, and have “a strong influence on their satisfaction with the app,” according to Scope, published by Stanford Medicine.

A dating app launched by two friends in San Francisco has already gained 6,000 new members, thanks to its clever hook of getting you to a real-life date as quickly as possible.

Soon works like a traditional dating app, allowing members to set up profiles, swipe and match. But once a match is made, instead of messaging first, the app presents a calendar and list of options for where to meet so you can schedule your first date. The idea is to get you meeting IRL, where you aren’t wasting a lot of time on texting a match that goes nowhere.

The meet-up places are not restaurants, but rather bars, coffee shops, or parks, because as the twenty-seven-year-old co-founder Cora Kyler told San Francisco Gate: “There’s no dinner. That is way too much of a commitment for a first date. We call it a ‘zero width’ date. It’s a vibe check, mostly coffee or a drink.”

Image: Her

Dating app HER has launched “Thirst Mode,” a new feature in time for Pride Month.

Thirst Mode offers HER users 60 minutes per day of unlimited likes, the ability to see who has liked them, and a chance to move their profiles to the top of the heap for more visibility, according to Cosmopolitan. This feature is intended to showcase that the dating app is prioritizing hookups as well as relationships, especially during Pride. The company found in a recent survey that 40 percent of its users were hoping to hook up with a friend this month.

HER was launched primarily for the lesbian singles community, but has now expanded to include “FLINTAS” (female, lesbian, intersex, trans, and agender singles).

The feature will be free during Pride month for all users, according to Cosmopolitan. After that, it will be a premium feature that costs $5.99 per month for those willing to pay.