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Tinder and Hinge have recently released new ultra-premium subscriptions for what they called “motivated daters,” but a significant population of singles would rather not pay the steep price for a dating app experience. In fact, the more companies try to monetize dating app features, the more it seems to turn off daters altogether.

A recent report from Bloomberg found that people are gravitating back to in-person events like speed dating, which saw a 63 percent increase in participation this past year according to Eventbrite. And they are reluctant to pay the $500 subscription for Tinder or $60 subscription for Hinge, though Match Group has noticed an uptick in revenue since releasing the premium services.

According to Bloomberg, third-quarter downloads for Hinge were the app’s best ever and that 1.3 million of its users pay for a subscription. Bumble will be offering short term subscriptions as well as its own high-priced premium service in the coming months.

Grindr has become the most popular dating app in the U.K. among singles aged 54 and older, according to a recent study from Ofcom, the country’s communications regulator.

According to The Pink News, Tinder was still the most-downloaded dating app in the UK, with 2.5 million users, followed by Bumble at 1.7 million U.K. users. Grindr has grown in 2023, but it still captures only about 1.9 percent of the U.K. adult population, or 924,000 users. But as far as time spent on the apps per user, Grindr wins hands-down.

In fact, the average user of the gay dating app spent seven hours on it in May of 2023, according to Ofcom, compared to only one hour on Tinder, and a bit more than two hours for each Bumble and Hinge.

Several China-based dating apps have added location trackers as a premium feature to boost revenues, but it’s also boosting suspicions among users.

According to South China Morning Post, some of these features include real-time location tracking, daily check-ins with partners, and allowing your partner to check your phone usage. In theory, the idea is to increase transparency and build closer connections between partners, but in reality, the features are causing more tension between them.

Understandably, this trend has sparked controversy, especially among those who already have partners who are suspicious of their behavior. The features can be quite intrusive, including a subscription that allows mutual sharing of smartphone usage time, battery level, network status and screen unlock history. It is not clear how knowledge of these particular features contributes to improved relationships. In fact, they seem to be exacerbating existing problems in relationships.

Tinder just announced a host of new features for its app, along with its “Rizz-First” redesign, an obvious move to court the coveted Gen Z market.

While adopting the popular Gen Z slang for “charisma” was widely seen as a cringeworthy move for the dating app company, experts also agree that trying to appeal to the Gen Z market is important for dating apps, especially as subscriber bases and revenue are falling. The new Rizz-First look includes enhanced and updated animations, a new “It’s a Match!” screen, and prompts and quizzes that younger daters prefer when getting to know someone over an app.

According to the company’s announcement, the team saw a growing need to provide a more engaging experience. In fact, Tinder’s recent Future of Dating Report found that 69 percent of Gen Z daters say that dating standards need “refreshing” to fit a modern and diverse society. Overall, daters need a bit more than a photo, a brief bio, and a swipe to feel connected to someone.

Peter English, who founded popular travel site Kayak.com, has turned to a new venture. He and his partner Rachel Cohen are launching an app called Lola Dating.

According to a feature in The Boston Globe, Lola is designed to get people to meet IRL. The app offers users a calendar up front, and invites them to look for openings over the next four days (the sooner they can schedule a date, the better it seems). Lola users can mark the times and dates they are free, and the app takes it from there, matching them only with people available on the same night. The app will only be available for residents of Boston at launch.

According to its founders, meeting in real life quickly is key. They met after connecting on Bumble and instead of messaging back and forth, scheduled to meet in person right away. They were both convinced that endless messaging without getting to know each other in real life was a real problem among dating app users.

College students are turning away from dating apps and prefer to meet others in person, according to a new study by Axios and Generation Lab.

The study polled almost 1,000 college students across the U.S. and found that an overwhelming majority of 79 percent do not go on dating apps or use them less than once per month. According to Axios, Tinder is still the favorite among young daters. Twelve percent of college students use Tinder at least once a month, with Bumble and Hinge close behind at 8 percent of students logging on at least monthly.

A caveat for the study: 55 percent of respondents said they were in a relationship already, so they didn’t need to use a dating app. But at least 64 percent of those met their partners outside of a dating app – either through classes, a party, or an introduction from a friend to name a few. Only 15 percent said they’d met through a dating app, according to PC Magazine UK.