With the end of the year rapidly approaching, dating services have released a flood of updates and new features to close 2017 on a high note.

Coffee Meets Bagel Updates

Coffee Meets Bagel took a cue from Snapchat and introduced ephemeral video in the form of a ‘question of the day’. Users may record up to eight seconds of video answering the question, which then appears in the video section for other users to browse. The section is wiped clean every 24 hours to make room for a new question.

“We learned that people don’t really feel a connection to each other until they meet, which makes any dating app feel like a lot of work,” said cofounder and COO Dawoon Kang. “We wanted to figure out a way for users to make a genuine connection from right within the app, and so we decided on video.”

Market analysts have a fascination with Tinder and Bumble, the two fastest-growing dating apps in the online dating industry. Rumors have been persistent that Match Group and Tinder was interested in acquiring the female-friendly dating app for around $450 million as reported back in August of this year, but the company turned down the offer.

Now it seems that Match Group, the parent company of Tinder, is reportedly still in talks to acquire Bumble, but now for a much heftier price tag of one billion US dollars, according to a recent article in Forbes.

Currently, Match Group has only $500 million in cash and a market cap of under $8 billion, according to website TechCrunch. So potential options would be to fund Bumble with some debt, or to do a cash/ stock combination deal, or even to acquire a portion of the company rather than all of it.

Dating sites regularly add new features to help users find love and stay competitive in an increasingly crowded market.

Over the years we’ve seen Coffee Meets Bagel partner with Yelp and Spotify, Tinder ramp up its famous swipe with Super Like, The League copy it with Power Play, Bumble introduce a time limit for responding to matches, and that’s barely the tip of the updates iceberg.

OkCupid, too, is no stranger to launching new features. Back in 2009, the site debuted its A-List premium paid subscription. In 2013, it experimented with (and quickly ditched) a sister app called Crazy Blind Date. In 2014 and 2015 came expanded options for gender self-identification and the Identity Project. In 2016, OkCupid released an update for nonmonogamous daters, and most recently, users were introduced to a Member Pledge and photo commenting.

But not every update makes the cut.

Remember the days of standing in line for coffee and striking up a conversation with the cute girl standing in front of you? And maybe you asked her out on a date? If you are single and living in Britain, you probably don’t.

A recent study found that almost half of British singles have never asked someone out on a date face to face. In fact, the trend of meeting potential dates has moved online, to the point where people prefer having a conversation over text rather than in person where things could get awkward or uncomfortable. Most singles meet eligible dates over dating apps and social media, which means they have little incentive to practice real life face-to-face conversation.

The study was commissioned by U.K. food brand Grace Say Aloe, a manufacturer of beverages. Researchers surveyed 1,500 single adults in the U.K.

It’s Saturday night. The stomach butterflies are building as you prepare to meet your latest Tinder date. You’re both Seinfeld fans who love animals and sweating it out in grueling CrossFit classes. And you’ve always had a secret thing for redheads. You have a good feeling about this one. But do you really know them?

Online dating fraud victim numbers have hit a record high. Scammers and catfishers develop increasingly clever cons, swindling lovesick singles out of money and property, and in some cases committing violent crimes. Even avowed advocates for digital dating have to admit the system has serious flaws.

Recent months have seen several companies in the industry take matters into their own hands. OkCupid introduced a member pledge in attempt to curb the unsolicited sending of explicit images. Bumble joined forces with the Anti-Defamation League to announce a zero-tolerance policy against misogynist, abusive, and inappropriate behavior. Tinder launched the ‘Menprovement Initiative’ to raise the bar for male behavior on the app.

To celebrate Thanksgiving in the United States, eHarmony is allowing new and existing users to communicate with their matches for free for 6 days starting Wednesday November 22^nd and ending at the end of day on Monday November 27^th.

To start off you will first need to create a free account on eHarmony. This will require you to fill out a profile and the personality questionnaire (multiple choice). No coupon code or credit card is required and the whole process should take you about 30 minutes to complete. Once you are finished you will then get your first set of matches. You can then go ahead and review the matches profiles and if one or more of them peak your interest you can then communicate with them by sending them a message. eHarmony has a lot of members and you will get new matches come every day. The only thing not included during free communicate weekends are profile photos.

Thanksgiving is a great time to checkout dating services like eHarmony. During holidays dating services become extra busy so there is a greater chance of finding your match. Plus with this promotion all users can message each other which means many more responses.

For more information about this online dating service, please read our review of eHarmony.