Features

Tinder Lite on Google Play

Tinder has unveiled its new streamlined app after announcing its debut earlier this year. Tinder Lite will be available as a separate app for Android phones and can be purchased through Google Play.

The new Lite app was designed specifically for users in countries and regions where Internet connectivity is slow and most people have lower-cost phones. According to Tinder CEO Elie Seidman, who spoke at the 2019 Rise Tech conference in Hong Kong in mid-July, the new app “would run faster, consume less battery and reduce network usage by about 20 percent,” as reported by The Jakarta Post.

Bumble Voice Chat and Video Call

Image: Bumble

Leading the way for major dating apps, Bumble launched an exciting new feature for its platform: in-app video and voice calls. It will soon be available in Bumble Bizz, Bumble BFF and its signature dating app.

The new feature is similar to Facetime, in that you can voice or video call a match directly from within the Bumble app. The ability to make an in-app call will be available only once a match has been made, according to Tech Crunch. In other words, there must be a double opt-in so users won’t be getting unsolicited calls from random users.

Dating apps have long used hidden scoring systems to rank users’ desirability. Tinder made headlines in 2016 when then-CEO Sean Rad revealed to Fast Company that Tinder users were assigned and matched according to an internal “Elo score.” Tinder has since retired the Elo score in favor of an updated algorithm, but it is not the only dating service that issues users an attractiveness rating.

UK-based app Once is one such service. Not only does Once use an attractiveness scale of one to five to guide its matching system, the company recently emailed its users to tell them their scores.

Coffee Meets Bagel launched in 2012 as a slower-paced alternative to the superficial, swiped-based apps that dominate the dating market. Now seven years into the business, co-founders and sisters Arum Kang, Dawoon Kang and Soo Kang are seeking new ways to differentiate and monetize their product.

2018 saw big changes and big victories come to Coffee Meets Bagel. After revamping its paid subscription services, the company raised $12 million in its series B and doubled its number of users. A premium monthly membership offers users activity reports about their matches (a “bagel,” in the app’s parlance), read receipts and 6,000 beans (the in-app currency) every month. At the time of its launch, Dawoon Kang told VentureBeat the membership was the company’s “first step toward a freemium subscription model.”

During Pride month Tinder announced that users will now be able to identify their sexual orientation on their profiles. The ‘Orientation’ feature allows users to choose up to three labels they identify with in order to more effectively match based on sexual preferences.

To edit or add more information about your sexual orientation on Tinder, simply edit your profile. Tap Orientation to select up to three terms that you feel best describe your sexual orientation. There are nine options to choose from, including “straight,” “gay,” “bisexual,” “queer” and “asexual.” New users will see these options as part of their onboarding process.

Hot on the heels of Match’s announcement that its new service, Ask Match, will make dating coaches available for one-on-one phone sessions, Ashley Madison is planning a coaching service of its own. The dating site for affair seekers recently revealed it has been testing a "cheating coaches" feature in Brazil and the United States since March of this year.

Hiring a coach to improve your romantic game is nothing new, but Ashley Madison may be the first to apply the idea to infidelity. The feature will allow users to search for an available coach through the mobile app, then purchase time with them via a credits system. Each credit costs around 50 cents, according to Business Insider. A continuous conversation with a coach will set you back eight credits.