Statistics

A vast majority of daters – 85 percent of women and 87 percent of men - want apps to verify the ages, recency of photos, and locations of potential matches.

According to a new study from TransUnion, over half of those surveyed also said that dating app profiles didn’t accurately reflect the people they met in person. Women were twice as likely to say that people lied about their age, and men were more likely to say they were a victim of a “bait and switch” according to the company’s press release. The study is entitled “The Paradox of Online Dating: Convenience vs. Connection.”

In fact, of those surveyed, more than 75 percent said they were willing to undergo background checks themselves to bring more transparency among dating app users.

Ahead of Valentine’s Day, Tinder has partnered with food brand Knorr to encourage users to highlight cooking skills on their Tinder profiles. A whopping 93 percent of Gen Z Tinder users find a date’s ability to cook attractive.

According to Design Rush, the new campaign encourages Tinder users to “unlock their green flag” by touting their ability to cook in profiles and hopefully sparking conversation. Knorr is also helping Tinder users get inspired by offering recipes and cooking tips on TikTok and Instagram leading up to Valentine’s Day under the campaign hashtag #UnlockYourGreenFlag.

According to the joint press release, Knorr and Tinder conducted a study of users to find that 63 percent are more likely to swipe right on someone with cooking listed as interest. And about 28 percent of singles said they won’t consider dating someone who can’t cook.

Tinder is courting some TikTok influencers, hoping they will lure Gen Z users back to the app.

Tinder paid six influencers to try out the app and post a series of videos about their experiences from September to December, ahead of the new year (which is the busiest season for dating apps). The TikTok stars posted videos about using Tinder and how things went meeting their dates in person under the hashtag #theconnectionexperience.

According to Axios, Tinder's recent brand sentiment study found that people were more willing and interested to try Tinder after watching their favorite TikTok influencers talk about using it.

Bumble founder Whitney Wolfe Herd announced that she will be returning to the company as CEO in March.

Wolfe Herd left the position early last year and Lidiane Jones, the former CEO of Slack, took the reins at Bumble. Jones oversaw a major reboot of the app which deviated from its original female-first approach, allowing men to message women first. During her tenure, the company went through staff layoffs and a significant drop in stock value as well.

Jones said she was leaving “for personal reasons” according to The Verge.

Dating app Hinge posted some advice on its blog to guide users heading into the busiest season for dating apps, from New Year’s Day until Valentine’s Day.

Hinge advises users to embrace a concept called “Dating Forward,” which means to focus on intentional actions to create the love life you want. Hinge’s Director of Relationship Science, Logan Ury said in the post to give your profile a refresh, which includes updated photos, trying out a new prompt on its app, and including your dating intentions so there’s clarity about what you want in a relationship.

There are also other tips Ury offers for searching on dating apps, such as looking for potential in matches and agreeing to message and meet for a date to see where it goes before discounting them because they don’t match your ideal.

Tinder released its annual Year in Swipe study, and while the company has struggled in recent months to attract new paying users, many are still turning to the app to find serious relationships, not just hookups.

“Looking for…” was Tinder’s top bio mention in 2024 according to its global data. The company also found that a majority of singles – 53 percent of men and 68 percent of women – want a romantic relationship. But they are doing more than posting this desire in their bios. Nearly 20 percent of 18-to-30-year-old daters said they are creating vision boards to manifest their ideal relationship in 2025 (assisted by Tinder’s new interactive vision board tool that can be shared with friends and family).

Tinder CMO Melissa Hobley told Mashable: "I'm seeing — I think a lot of people seeing this growing frequency of people say, 'Do not talk to me if you're not looking for something serious.'"