Communication

A new study by dating app Bumble found that getting vaccinated is a priority for singles, and if you don’t, it could cost you a date.

The dating app company surveyed about 1,000 of its American users in May and found that 30 percent said they wouldn’t consider going on a date or having sex with someone who wasn’t vaccinated. Bottom line: if you’re holding out, you might also be missing out on your love life.

According to Fast Company, the vast majority of respondents – 90 percent - want to date face-to-face, though Bumble maintains that many people like virtual dating as a way to determine whether or not to meet someone in person, so people will continue using this feature. Thirty-eight percent of respondents agreed that they prefer a virtual first date before meeting in person. Forty-six percent of users said they would be fine with a “normal” date and another 41 percent said they’d still want to keep socially distanced.

OkCupid Adds Super Like Feature

OkCupid has made a lot of changes to its platform over the past year, especially as activity and subscribers on the app increased during the pandemic. Among the most notable changes are a new pricing structure, added features like DealBreakers, and the ability to match with someone from across the world.

The popular dating app adjusted its pricing tiers and did away with its “A-List” membership in favor of Basic and Premium paid services. (The free service is still available for those who don’t want to upgrade.) With a Basic membership, you can Like an unlimited number of profiles instead of waiting for Likes to reset. You also get an ad-free experience, according to the company’s blog. 

The company ditched its Intros feature, which means that non-paying members can no longer message another user until they have both Liked each other.

Tinder is rolling out a new feature to allow users to block people in their lives from appearing on their match list – whether it’s an ex, a family member, or a work colleague you don’t want mixing with your dating life.

According to Tech Crunch, the new feature allows users to upload their phone contacts and select which people from their list they don’t want to see on the app. The company says it won’t store the user’s contacts, only the ones they have chosen to block. It should be noted that blocked contacts won’t be notified that they’ve been blocked, so the feature is also intended to be discreet.

People will be allowed to unblock or disconnect their contacts list at any time, according to The Verge.

Hinge Vaccine Badge

Image: Hinge

Dating apps are offering vaccine stickers for user profiles in the U.K., so potential matches can know vaccination status right away before swiping right.

Tinder is offering an array of stickers, including “Vaccinated” and “Vaxing soon,” according to a report from BBC News. Tinder, Match, Hinge, Bumble, Badoo, Plenty of Fish, OurTime and Muzmatch will all be offering badge options for users to add to their profiles, in partnership with a vaccine push by the U.K. government.

The vaccination badge trend began for U.S. dating app users, thanks to a government initiative to get as many people vaccinated as possible. The Biden administration pursued a partnership with dating apps, hoping they would be a good way to reach out to younger people and give them an incentive to get the vaccine – i.e., they can brag that they did and potentially attract more matches.

Tinder was testing a group video chat feature before its parent company Match Group struck an acquisition deal for South Korea social discovery company Hyperconnect.

The new feature was called Tinder Mixer and was being tested in New Zealand before it was scrapped, according to Tech Crunch. Tinder Mixer allowed people nearby to join group chats and play online video games together, adding to the app’s existing one-on-one virtual chat feature.

Tinder Mixer was discovered by researcher Alessandro Paluzzi, who found references to the feature in the app’s code. However, Tinder shut it down quickly and told Tech Crunch it’s not impacting its “product roadmap” for this year. However, Paluzzi’s findings about Tinder Mixer shows that Match Group is experimenting with new social discovery features through its dating apps, which shines some light on the company’s deal with Hyperconnect.

Blink, the first audio-only dating app, aims to shift attention away from swiping and towards getting to know each other through conversation.

According to its website, matching over Blink is a two-part process. First, you sign up and provide only one photo for your profile, along with a few timeslots that you are available for ten-minute audio-only speed dating rounds. There’s no algorithm matching people on the app - instead it’s left to coinciding schedules and chance. During the 10-minute speed dating rounds, participants enter online “rooms” where they chat with a blind date, and then when the ten minutes are up, move to the next room and the next date.