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Dating app Bumble has released new features to help people connect better over the app as most of us around the world stay home to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

One of the new features is the in-app audio/voice note ability, so you can leave a voice message for a match without having to exchange phone numbers, according to The Verge. This is a way to personalize messages with your matches, as texting can feel kind of generic after a while. It’s also another way to filter matches ahead of agreeing to a video chat.

It’s the 2020 election season, and political campaigns are competing for young voters – and turning to dating apps Tinder and Bumble for help.

Young campaign volunteers are using dating apps to chat with their matches and advertise for their candidates over dating apps, according to International Business Times. Some are even springing for premium versions of Tinder so they can change location and engage voters in other states. Still other app users are advocating for more political engagement, including announcing in their profiles that they only date registered voters.

Match Group announced the roll out of new filter features for its star dating app Tinder, following suit with Bumble, who rolled out similar features late last year.

The filter features include both free and paid options, according to Tech Crunch, but Match Group did not disclose many details, other than comparing the features to Tinder U, which filters matches solely to other nearby college students. 

Match Group aims “to make the utility of Tinder better and more efficient,” according to CEO Mandy Ginsberg, who just announced she’ll be leaving the company after fourteen years at the end of February. 

Tencent, China’s largest social networking platform and operator of the immensely popular app WeChat, has launched a new dating app that seems positioned to compete with both Tinder and Tantan, China’s most popular dating app.

Qingliao - roughly translated as “light chat” – is kind of a hybrid of different dating app features already on the market. There is no swiping, but users can choose to “like” or “pass” on a potential match by choosing an “X” or a heart. When two users are matched, they can start chatting, according to details described in South China Morning Post.

A new study by dating app Hinge shows that people are more likely to match when they have certain traits in common, rather than the old adage “opposites attract.”

According to the results of the study, people are more likely to match when they share similar backgrounds, particularly religious affiliation, education, and even their initials. The study was conducted by Jon Levy and Moran Cerf of the Northwestern University Kellogg School of Management, and Devin Markell of Hinge. According to an article in Business Insider, they analyzed the outcomes of more than 421 million potential matches on the app to see how similarities in certain traits affected the likelihood of people matching. This included assessing indications of users wanting to communicate outside the dating app.

Facebook Dating just launched, but privacy advocates are warning despite all the opt-in features, Facebook could be collecting more data than you realize.

Facebook Dating is reassuring potential customers by allowing them to make decisions about how visible they want to be on the app – including providing features to block certain users from appearing in your matches (like an ex) and hiding your dating profile from friends and work colleagues. Even some of the more questionable features – like “secret crush” – where you can identify someone you secretly like over the app, and if they do the same you two are matched, are only activated when users choose them.