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Chispa, a dating app for Latino singles, has partnered with non-partisan organization Voto Latino to encourage more Latinos to go to the polls.

The dating app launched a co-branded election hub on its platform, offering users information on how to register to vote as well as early voting, mail-in voting, and candidate details according to the press release. Chispa said it created the hub to boost voter registration and participation in the Latino community and will in turn support Voto Latino with a contribution toward their voter drive efforts.

Eighty percent of Chispa users are between 18 and 34 years old, a prime demographic as both political parties target younger voters. Voto Latino provides information on registering to vote (which varies from state to state), as well as polling location information and early voting options.

Image: OkCupid

OkCupid has added a range of new politically-focused questions to its platform along with politically-themed badges ahead of the 2024 US election.

According to CNN, the new questions focus on voter behavior and help users choose more compatible profiles. Some questions include: “Are you voting in the 2024 presidential election?” and “What’s the most important issue to you in the 2024 presidential election?”

Other questions refer to whether singles are willing to bridge the political divide, such as: “Is it a dealbreaker if your date is voting for a different candidate than you in the 2024 presidential election?”

Dating apps may be inadvertently helping contribute to greater income inequality, according to a new economic study.

According to The Independent, researchers at the Federal Reserve Banks of St. Louis and Dallas and Haverford College found that at least half of the rise in income inequality between 1980 and 2020 can be attributed to changing preferences and the rise of online dating. Because of how easy it is to filter based on preferences, people are more likely now to marry someone in the same socioeconomic bracket than they were before.

According to The Independent, researchers specifically tracked education, race, income, skill level and age of recently married people between 2008 and 2021, as dating apps became more popular. The findings suggest that people are marrying someone more like themselves than they were likely to in earlier years, which the researchers have tied to half of the increase in household income inequality during the same period. When higher-earning people couple up and lower earners do as well, it grows the disparity.

The new dating app industry code of conduct established by the Australian government has taken effect as of October 1st, requiring dating apps to adhere to certain standards in an effort to better protect their users.

The new code requires dating apps to make “prominent and transparent” to users how to report someone or file a complaint on their platforms, according to Associated Press. The code also requires dating apps to detect potential incidents of online harm, and that the accounts of offenders are terminated.

A pervasive problem is that users who have been blocked on one platform can join another, so the reporting process is key. Communication Minister Michelle Rowland said in a statement: “If there are grounds to ban a particular individual from utilizing one of those platforms, if they’re banned on one platform, they’re blocked on all platforms,” according to AP.

Plenty of Fish has published their annual dating trends study and found that many young singles are using terms like “smutten” and “freak matching” to describe their dating experiences.

Each year there are new words in the cultural zeitgeist to describe dating scenarios, and Plenty of Fish has delved into what is trending. The company surveyed 6,000 U.S. members and found that TikTok and Instagram continue to heavily influence peoples’ perspectives on dating, though terms might have evolved.

According to their press release, one dating trend POF found was that 33 percent of singles said they have felt “smutten,” (a play on smut and smitten), fantasizing about their own dating lives based on characters from tv shows and romance novels that they have enjoyed. (Forbidden love and enemies to lovers are popular romance tropes, and over a third of respondents said they imagine their dates mimicking these storylines.) More women have looked for these fantasies to play out in their dating lives than men (women at 40 percent, men at 28 percent), though both sexes do this.

Image: Tinder

Dating app Tinder is launching the in-app “Take Action Center” along with partner Vote.org to encourage people to register to vote and make a voting plan ahead of the November elections in the U.S.

According to Tinder’s press release, the Take Action Center is powered by Vote.org to make it easy for people to get the information they need to prepare for election season, including where to register to vote or how to check voter registration status, how to request a mail-in ballot, and where to vote (whether in-person, early voting, or dropping a ballot in the mail). Vote.org offers a range of information to voters, including polling locations and voter registration status. Tinder users who participate can also receive “I Voted” digital stickers to post on their profiles.

To help drive turnout, Tinder and Vote.org will also provide a GOTV (get out the vote) food truck outside of the Taylor Swift Eras Tour in Indianapolis, November 2-3. The food truck will feed concertgoers as well as provide them information about their voter registration and voting options including their polling locations (even for those traveling from other states).