Online Dating

This Thanksgiving weekend eHarmony is offering users in the United States free communication. This offer runs for 5 days and starts Thursday November 23^rd and runs to the end of day Monday November 28^th (ends at 11:59PM PST). You can enjoy free communication on their website at eHarmony.com and the eHarmony dating apps (which you can find on Google Play and iTunes).

If you are interested in trying out eHarmony the first thing you need to do when you visit their website is create a free membership. This includes providing basic information about yourself like your email address, gender, and age. From there you will then be prompted to fill out the profile questionnaire. This takes about 30 minutes (you can pause and come back anytime to complete) and is important because your answers are used to match you with other eHarmony members who live in your area and who have compatible personalities. Once your profile is complete eHarmony will determine your first set of matches and send you them to you. From there you can then start communicating with the matches that peak your interest. Please note this free communication promotion does not include profile photos, secure call (an anonymous phone call service), or skipping the guided communication process to go straight to emailing. Also no credit card is required for this promotion.

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

Tinder is on a roll. After announcing a partnership with Spotify and introducing the ‘Boost’ feature to promote profiles, the dating app is launching yet another update. The newest feature is called Smart Photos, and it hopes to help users put their best face (literally) forward.

The Smart Photos algorithm automatically determines which pictures are a user’s best. It works by cycling the photos on your profile so different ones appear as your primary image. As it does so, it logs the response to each image and calculates which scores you the most likes or right swipes.

Once the algorithm has fully assessed your photo selection, it determines which image is the strongest to lead with and automatically reorders your pictures to show the best ones first. In testing, users saw up to a 12% increase in matches.

The finalists have been selected for the 8th annual iDate Awards. It’s now up to the public to choose the winners.

Each year, the iDate Awards highlight the people and websites that represent the best and most innovative aspects of the online dating, matchmaking, and date coaching businesses. The winners will be announced at the iDate Awards ceremony on the night of January 25, 2017 in Miami. The ceremony will fall on the final evening of the 47th international iDate Dating Industry Super Conference, the industry’s largest convention and expo.

This year’s winners will be selected from thirteen categories:

Think about your least favorite photos on dating profiles. There’s the group shot where it’s impossible to tell who the subject is supposed to be. There’s the picture of a pet or an inanimate object that doesn’t include the subject at all. There’s the unsolicited dick pic sent in messages.

And there’s the shirtless mirror selfie. It’s not only the butt of countless Internet jokes, it’s also the most left-swiped profile picture on Bumble. A full 86% of reported profiles on Bumble include mirror selfie photos. It got the Bumble team thinking…

If they’re not enriching the dating app experience, why allow them at all?

Hinge just announced the relaunch of its new self-dubbed “relationship app” as an alternative to dating apps, which have garnered a reputation over the years that the people using them aren’t all that interested in finding relationships. Hinge developers overhauled the app's look and feel as well as its functionality, and are now charging $7 per month for members to use it.

Hinge has been working on the new app for a year, though details weren’t disclosed. However, the company did launch a website revealing its escape from the “dating apocalypse” that is now online dating, named for the controversial New York Times article declaring the end of dating culture thanks to apps like Tinder.

Tinder has become an incredibly popular way to meet, but it has led to a lack of serious online daters looking for real relationships. The game-like swiping functionality of Tinder has created several copycat dating apps in the industry, each one claiming to produce better results and cut down on the fake profiles. So far however, nothing has made a significant dent in Tinder’s appeal or market share.

Even the rich and famous have a hard time meeting new people to date. According to Teen Vogue, model and reality TV star Kendall Jenner has a profile up on popular female-centric dating app Bumble.

This isn’t the first time a celebrity has put up a public profile on a dating app. Hillary Duff had a profile on Tinder and was filmed dating a few guys she met on the app for her reality TV show. Lily Allen and Lindsay Lohan have been public about their profiles and experiences using Tinder, too. And Kendall’s older sister Kourtney put a profile on Bumble, and was encouraged by sister Kylie to start looking for dates via the app.