Technology

Popular gay dating app Grindr has formed a relationship with UrSafe to offer a range of safety features to its members, in response to concerns raised by users around the world.

According to The Advocate, Grindr users will be able to share their locations with trusted friends and family members and send hands-free SOS alerts to law enforcement officials. The safety app allows users to set up safe words that correspond to different situations that users encounter, from general discomfort to an emergency, triggering the appropriate response almost immediately.

The Meet Group, parent company of dating apps like MeetMe, Skout, Tagged, GROWLr and LOVOO, has partnered with personal safety app UrSafe to offer users an array of new security options when they date. 

Through the “Date Night” feature on these dating apps, users will be prompted to opt in for a free 60-day premium subscription to UrSafe’s features, including Follow Me, Check In, Hands-Free SOS, and Fake Call. According to URSafe's press release, Follow Me and Check In allow the user to share locations with a trusted friend or family member while on the date, and the Hands-Free option lets users set personal trigger words that activate different responses within the app immediately, even if the user isn’t holding or touching their phone. Depending on the level of alert, UrSafe will connect the user to friends and family, or the authorities if needed. Fake Call can be activated as well, in case the user needs an “out” during the date. 

Image: hinge

Dating app Hinge will be rolling out a new in-app video chat feature. Earlier this year, the company added an option for users to let their matches know if they were interested in a video date, and this latest option expands on that.

The company also announced the official launch of Hinge Labs, the first in-house research group to study online dating behaviors beyond just surveying dating app users. One of Hinge Labs’ first projects will be to examine how its users respond to video dating by testing in select markets, according to Mashable. These cities include Dallas, Denver, Miami, Minneapolis, and Washington, D.C. The company will roll out the feature globally later this summer.

Dating app eHarmony has released a new feature called Video Date, in time to help its users form better connections over its app. This is especially timely as the world shelters in place from the outbreak of coronavirus.

Video Date is a one-on-one video chat service that is available within the eHarmony app. Touting its safety, eHarmony says the key distinguishing parts of its new feature are the security measures the company put in place. No member will be forced to exchange private information such as a mobile number, nor will they be “faced with the additional safety concerns associated with moving to an external platform,” according to the company’s press release. 

Dating app OkZoomer began as a joke, but has unexpectedly taken off among college students across the U.S.

The coronavirus has forced people to find creative ways to connect, and college students have risen to the challenge. Ileana Valdez and Patrycja Gorska, two Yale Juniors, noticed the Ivy League Meme Consortium was growing fast with almost 100,000 members who were posting memes about their new social lives over Zoom. They thought they could do something similar with virtual dating. 

According to The Dallas Observer, they created a Google Form to match people going on blind Zoom dates as a joke, but then they began seeing hundreds, then thousands, sign up. In just two days, almost 2,400 students from 170 colleges across the country had signed up. Gorska and Valdez recruited more students to help, with a total of six people staffing their project, including Valdez’s brother who created an algorithm to help with matches. Now just weeks later, they have over 12,000 sign-ups.

Dating app Plenty of Fish partnered with The Meet Group to launch a new livestream video feature as more people around the world turn to dating apps for connection. But POF has a rocky history with video chat features, and had come under fire as recently as last year because scammers were creating fake invitations and taking advantage of users trying to access the feature. 

The company hopes that the newest version backed by The Meet Group, which provides livestream technology to apps, will give users a more positive and secure experience. The Meet Group also has a few dating apps of its own – Meet Me, Skout, LOVOO, Tagged and Growlr which use video features. In fact, one of the highlights of the new POF feature is that users can earn diamonds from other users in response to a livestream, which is also a part of Meet Me’s platform.