Speed is essential to life in 2017. A quick internet connection is almost as important as heat and running water, and we swipe through potential dates faster than you can say “It’s a match!” Before you know it, we’re chatting, sipping lattes on the first date, and making it Facebook official.

But a new dating app wants users to take things slow - real slow - using the retro strategy of actually talking to each other to seduce matches.

Appetence, which is now available to download for free in the iTunes Store, believes conversation is your sexiest attribute. “True and long-lasting love isn't found through images alone,” reads the website. “On Appetence your details are completely private. Only you decide when to display your full profile and who gets to see it.”

To celebrate Independence Day in the United States, and Canada Day in well of course Canada, eHarmony is having Free Communication promotion. It starts Thursday June 29^th and runs to Monday July 3^rd for Canada and Tuesday July 4^th for the United States. One interesting note is that Canada as a country turns 150 so it is going to be quite a celebration I am told.

So what is free communication? It is when eHarmony allows all free members to send messages to any of their matches they receive. This means that for the next 5 - 6 days (depending on country) eHarmony is going to be super busy as singles try out the new service which will greatly increase your chances of meeting someone new.

So how do you qualify? All you need to do is visit the eHarmony website and signup as a free member. You can then go ahead and fill in your personality questionnaire which can take about 30 minutes (you can come back later to finish it, if need be). Once complete you will receive your first set of matches. That's it! You can now review your matches and send messages to the ones you like. Remember these matches are matched based on your preferences and personality profile and have the best chances of creating a long-term relationship. No credit card is required for this promotion. The only thing not included are profile photos.

To find out more about this online dating service accessible via their website or dating apps, please read our eHarmony review.

Office romance? What could go wrong? Dating co-workers is a notoriously risky proposition, and yet, one dating app thought playing cupid in the workplace could be its next big move.

Feeld, a service originally created for threesomes, made the bold decision to launch ‘Feeld for Slack’ - a bot designed to allow employees to share their office crushes in the popular team messaging platform.

To be used, a designated administrator at a company has to install the app. Once it's downloaded, anyone on the Slack team can direct message @Feeld and enter the name of their crush. If the feeling is mutual, both people receive a notification. If not, no one is ever the wiser.

After purchasing 62 percent of the gay dating app Grindr last year for $88 million, Beijing Kunlun Tech is shelling out another $152 million to buy the remaining percentage. The Chinese tech company is now the sole owner of Grindr, which reaches 27 million users in nearly 200 countries.

Unlike Taiwan, which recently legalized same-sex marriage, China affords few legal rights to LGBT citizens. Nevertheless, companies like Kunlun are beginning to realize the enormous potential of LGBT customers. Kunlun hopes to expand Grindr’s reach throughout Asia and take on China’s homegrown gay dating app, Blued.

“It is of strategic importance for us to fully engage in the daily operations of Grindr and make it our development milestone,” Kunlun said in a statement. “[With the deal], we also aim to be a world leading social media company in the future, and to expand our platforms into film, streaming and animation.”

Spring cleaning isn’t just for your home. According to Facebook data analysts, the season is also prime time for daters to “clear the clutter” in their love lives - in other words, it’s breakup season.

In a paper from 2014, Lars Backstrom of Facebook and Jon Kleinberg of Cornell University analyzed user data from Facebook in search of insight into modern love lives. Amongst other things, they found that:

• About half of all Facebook relationships that have survived three months are likely to survive to four years or longer
• Heterosexual couples are generally around the same age, even as they get older
• Same-sex couples display the stereotypical age gap as they grow older, leveling off at about 4.5 years difference after age 38
• How much interest couples have in each other is a better predictor of love than having a lot of friends in common

Online dating is one of the most popular ways to meet people, thanks to free apps and services like Plenty of Fish and Tinder. But many daters opt to be more particular in their search, and are willing to pay for a more curated experience, whether it’s online dating, matchmaking, or even “casual dating” services, like escorts.

According to a new study done by Statista for the Digital Market Outlook (DMO), the United States has the largest share of adults worldwide who are actively paying for a dating service. More than a quarter – 26 percent - of daters in the U.S. are paying for dating services, followed by the UK at almost 21 percent and Germany with 17 percent.

Daters in France, China and Saudi Arabia were the least likely to pay for a dating service according to the study, with 13%, 11% and 5% of daters respectively who were active paying customers at the time of the study.