Online Dating

Dating app Bumble is releasing new features for its free and premium services, aimed at fostering a kinder, more curated dating experience, according to the company’s press release.

Mashable noted that one of the new features is Review Before You Send, and will be part of its Compliments feature. While Compliments is intended to encourage positive interactions over the app, sometimes the message isn’t received well, no matter the intention of the sender. In fact, as Bumble tested Review Before You Send, they found that 46 percent of people chose to edit their Compliment after they received the prompt, because it encouraged them to reread their message and think twice about sending it.

Another new feature the app is launching allows users to add their interests to the top of their profile (modeled after the app’s hit “Top Artists” feature, where a favorite band or singer is placed front and center in a user’s profile).

Match Group announced in its quarterly earnings call that its star app Tinder will be launching a “high-end” subscription tier this fall. In addition, Tinder will debut a product refresh to cater to the Gen Z dating market.

The company has been testing price points in different markets, including a $500 subscription that was called Tinder Vault, according to CPO Mark Van Ryswyk. In an interview with Fast Company earlier this year, he noted that there’s a market for daters who are willing to pay for good matches, as evidenced by the success of its exclusive dating app The League.

However, the price point was arguably high for an app that will not include human matchmakers, but instead will continue to rely on technology to serve up better matches.

Parents in China are taking matters into their own hands with their single adult children and using dating apps to help them find someone to marry.

Parent-facing dating apps are taking off in China, according to Rest of World, which reports on tech trends globally. Many parents are using online matchmaking platforms like Perfect In-Laws, Family-Building Matchmaking, and Parents Matchmaking to set up dates for their grown and unmarried children.

On platforms like these, the parents set up profiles for their children, sometimes without their knowledge or consent, according to Rest of World. When the match is made, it’s the parents who meet and get to know each other first, similar to matchmaking apps used in India.

Dating app Tinder is testing an AI feature that will select the best profile photos for users, according to reports from parent company Match Group’s latest earnings call.

Tech Crunch noted that the AI feature will examine a Tinder member’s photo album and select five that “best represents them for their dating profile.” According to Match Group CEO Bernard Kim, choosing pictures is a stressful process for daters, and typically they have doubts about which ones they pick, what he labeled as a “pain point” on the earnings call.

“Sometimes, people are really excited to jump into the Tinder experience,” Kim said. He continued: “then in that exact moment where you upload five pictures, people get generally nervous or uncomfortable, like, ‘What is the right picture that I’ve taken over the last year to make my dating profile more me?’”

Millions of people are turning to TikTok to get ideas for what to do on a date or to spice things up with their partner. TikTok’s newest viral dating craze is Alphabet Dating, where a couple goes through the letters of the alphabet to create out-of-the-box date ideas.

Instead of letting things get stale (and doing the same thing over and over), TikTokers are posting their Alphabet Date ideas to help inspire others. For example, if you start with the letter A, you can imagine places to go or things to do that begin with the letter A, like visiting an aquarium or doing an archery session, as website Bustle notes. Then the next week, you look for “B” activities like bowling, bike riding, or playing board games. And so on until you go through the alphabet.

Partners can take turns coming up with ideas each time they plan. The idea is to go through the entire alphabet as inspiration to keep things fresh, new and exciting.

A supermajority of Grindr employees have launched a campaign to form a union, announcing the plan via the Communication Workers of America (CWA) to collectively fight for layoff protections, preserve current benefits, add cost of living pay raises, and strengthen LGBTQ+ rights in the workplace, among other demands.

According to Grindr United’s press release announcing its formation, about 100 eligible members from departments across the company including cloud engineering, customer experience, design, engineering, IT, marketing, privacy, product and quality assurance signed representation cards at Grindr.

Employees are asking Grindr management to recognize their union, but if they refuse, employees will petition the National Labor Relations Board to hold an election, according to The Los Angeles Times. (U.S. Labor law allows companies to negotiate and recognize a union once they have signed up a majority of employees (which Grindr United has), or to hold out for a government-run election.)