New research has shown that the dating app market, once booming after the pandemic, has started to show signs of slowing down.

According to Tech Crunch, research firm data.ai found that global downloads of dating apps saw very tepid growth year-over-year in January 2024. The slight increase of 1.9 percent (128 million installs) from January 2023 was down drastically from the 29 percent increase seen the year before.

In the U.S., data.ai found only a 2.38 percent year-over-year growth from January 2023 to January 2024, with 12.7 million installs, down from a 16 percent growth seen during the same time period last year.

The U.S. market is one of the largest and most lucrative for dating apps, but Pew reported last year that only three in ten U.S. adults had ever used a dating app or online dating site, the same percentage that was reported in 2019. This was surprising considering how dating apps took off during the pandemic and the years immediately following.

A federal lawsuit was filed in a San Francisco court against Match Group, alleging that the dating app company creates apps that hook users with promises of love, and then push people to pay money to keep swiping.

According to NPR, the lawsuit was brought by six plaintiffs in New York, California, and Florida, alleging that Match Group “gamifies” its apps to “transform users into gamblers locked in a search for psychological rewards that Match makes elusive on purpose.”

Match Group owns popular apps Tinder, Hinge, Match, OkCupid and The League, among others.

The lawsuit goes on to claim that Match Group’s apps are designed to turn users into addicts who keep swiping; and keep purchasing subscriptions and paid features to be able to keep searching for matches. The plaintiffs also claim that the company has violated state and federal consumer protection laws and engaged in false advertising.

Image: Neon

Score, a new dating app for those with credit scores of 675 or higher, is now available to join. The app was launched by financial platform Neon Money Club, which wanted to raise awareness about the importance of finances in relationships.

According to Tech Crunch, the fiscally-minded app is intended to push daters to have conversations about money, which is often a taboo subject. “We need to take the conversation to areas where finance isn’t traditionally discussed,” Luke Bailey, co-founder and CEO of Neon Money Club, told TechCrunch. “Before you can educate people, you need to get their attention. With Score, we’re bringing the conversation to dating.”

Users of the app must apply to join, and upon signing up, Neon Money Club will do a credit check (that won’t impact their credit score) to verify they meet the minimum requirement. Tech Crunch notes that credit scores will not appear on anyone’s profile, and people won’t be matched according to their score level (i.e. someone with a score of 680 can match someone with a score of 800).

Image: Tinder

Tinder has updated its community guidelines with AI-based warnings that detect problematic messages and behavior of users and issue warning messages to adhere to the community guidelines, or they will be removed from the app.

The new warnings, according to Tinder’s press release, center around three categories: authenticity, respect and inclusivity.

The warnings come as an update to the Community Guidelines, which serve as the basis for expected behavior of users on the app. They aim to protect users against harassment, and “advertising and impersonation,” according to the release.

Image: Bumble

Dating app Bumble launched Deception Detector, an AI-based feature that aims to cut down on bots and fake profiles.

According to ZD Net, the new feature leverages the machine learning-based technology to help identify fake, scam or spam profiles on the app before the user comes into contact with them. The feature can assess the authenticity of a profile and, according to Bumble’s test, supported automatically blocking 95 percent of accounts identified as spam or scam by the company.

Bumble was quick to add that the AI-based feature will be used in conjunction with “dedicated human support” for added safety for its members.

Bumble also said in its release that within the first two months of the technology’s introduction, the platform saw member reports of spam, scam, and fake accounts reduced by 45%.

Some dating app users are becoming creative in their frustration with matches they are served and have started using hacks to trip up the algorithms behind the matching.

According to a recent feature in The New York Times, these hacks are aimed at besting the algorithm so that users can try and access different results. The tricky part is, the dating apps are putting more and more features behind a paywall, so it’s getting more convoluted to try and get around the algorithm.

But some dating app hackers are finding success and posting their methods on TikTok and Reddit. For example, some users recommend deactivating and then reactivating your account to get a fresh set of matches, according to The New York Times. Some have also suggested rejecting a bunch of attractive profiles to throw off the matching process, or to switch your location to a different city, which is like pressing “refresh” on your matches.