Online Dating

In the wake of the violence in Charlottesville, Virginia last weekend, two dating app companies have stepped forward to ban white supremacists from their platforms and offer donations to organizations that fight against hate groups.

OkCupid has offered a donation to a Charlottesville victim relief group, which is helping support victims of the attacks that shook the community in early August. Bumble has also stepped forward, announcing its partnership with the Anti-Defamation League, pledging a “zero tolerance policy against misogynist, abusive, and inappropriate behaviour.”

Bumble stated it will use the ADL’s “research and terminology” to identify and categorize hate symbols, and prevent people who use hate speech and symbols from using the dating platform.

Dating app Hinge wants to reward you for taking dating seriously. In a new promotion, the company is offering free gifts from its “Milestone Marketplace” when a couple who meets over the app hits certain relationship milestones. Unfortunately, it’s only for a limited time. The happy couples can claim their rewards until August 23^rd.

Some milestones include the first sleepover, moving in, getting a dog, getting engaged, honeymooning, and even having a baby. There are eleven total milestones that Hinge celebrates with free gifts, which include pillows, an electronic toothbrush, birthstone stud earrings and a $200 vibrator, among other gifts. Hinge had a little fun with the prizes. For “meeting the parents,” couples get a $50 credit to Minibar for wine.

For getting engaged, couples can earn $100 for a Zola registry, a nice gift for newlyweds.

Starting Friday August 18^th and running to the end of day on Monday August 21^st eHarmony.com members can communicate with their matches for free in the United States.

No credit card is required for this promotion so if you are interested in trying out the dating service known for creating long-term relationships then this weekend is the ideal time for you to find out how everything works at eHarmony before spending any money. All you need to do is create a free membership on eHarmony, fill in your profile information, and then take the personality questionnaire. The questionnaire is an important part of the automated matchmaking and takes about 20 minutes to complete. When you are finished you will receive your first daily batch of high quality matches which you can then send messages to the ones which spark your interest. The only thing not included in free messaging of matches, is viewing of profile photos.

Love can feel like a game sometimes, and in this case, it’s literal. Happn is testing a new gamified feature for singles in Spain, a simple but addictive game called CrushTime.

CrushTime is designed to give users another opportunity to connect with people they cross paths with in real life. At the start of the game, CrushTime presents four users you’ve recently been near. One is a person who has already liked you (a “Crush”), and it’s up to you to figure out which one it is.

If your intuition is on point and you guess correctly, you can start chatting in-app immediately with your new match. If you’re wrong, it’s simply a non-mutual like and no one knows but you. You can either start a new game or try again if you’re into one of the remaining profiles.

Welcome to the brave new world of falling in love - one that doesn’t just use technology to find matches, but also uses it to analyze your dates and determine the best of your romantic options. Evolve, launched April 2017, employs machine learning to help singles identify their dating patterns and make smarter choices.

It sounds like the creation of a sci-fi novel or a Black Mirror episode, but Evolve calls itself something much less intimidating: “the world’s first dating and relationship manager.” Unlike other dating apps, you’ll find no matches on Evolve - instead the app is designed to help you date with intention by offering personalized insights backed by data.

Each time you go on a date, log onto Evolve to enter details about the outing. Rate your date from 1 to 10, and indicate whether it ended with a kiss or “more.” Select your match’s pros and cons (the choices include “Trustworthy,” “Sketchy,” “Ambitious,” “Baggage,” “Shared Values,” and “Great Chemistry”) from a list of options. You can also add photos and basic info about people into Evolve, either manually or by letting the app pull the information for you automatically using a screenshot.

Dating apps have to set themselves apart from the rigorous competition, and it seems new features are being introduced weekly. The latest is from dating app Happn, who announced a new matching feature called “Crush Time” to help its users find matches.

Crush Time is purposefully game-like, which makes it interesting. It shows you four profiles, and you have to guess which one already liked you. If you guess correctly, you can start messaging right away with the in-app messaging feature. If you don’t guess correctly, then you don’t match (because it’s not a mutual like).

Another unique twist to Crush Time is the fact that you can’t just endlessly play the game. It pops up every so often, so you have to watch for it. (This of course adds to the stickiness of checking the Happn app more than you otherwise might). It makes the game all the more exciting when you get to play.