Types (Niche)

Dating app Bumble has seen tremendous success since its launch over two years ago, with more than 12.5 million registrations to date. Now, the company wants to expand their services to offer connections for friendship and business opportunities, too.

Bumble debuted as a dating app, differentiating itself from Tinder by putting the power of communication in the hands of women, who are required to make the first move. Since then, the company has launched Bumble BFF for people seeking friendships rather than romantic relationships, and it is about to release Bumble Biz to connect people for business networking.

Tinder’s reign won’t let up. The dating app is not only the most recognizable in the industry, it’s also one of the most successful. With constant feature updates, like 2015’s introduction of the ‘Super Like’, Tinder ensures it remains on top of the game.

Two of the most recent updates have proved to be highly beneficial for the app. During a panel at this year’s SXSW, co-founder Sean Rad shared that Tinder has matched some 250,000 transgender users since unveiling new gender identity options last November. The company also increased its community education and refined its approach to preventing harassment.

“We have a great algorithm that can help, but no algorithm can solve humans,” Rad explained. “We were taken aback by how complex identity is. It’s a very complex area and, at the same time, Tinder is extremely simple.”

There are more dating apps on the market than you could possibly count, with new ones popping up seemingly every week. Though they cover a diverse - and sometimes outright strange - range of people and interests, the vast majority are made with heterosexual couples in mind.

Winkd is a dating app based in Sydney which just launched this month. It hopes to take a different approach and join the likes of Grindr as a successful service built by putting the LGBTQ community first.

Founders Diana Kalkoul and Neda Robat-Meily, who are both queer, found themselves frustrated with the lack of inclusivity in most popular dating apps. But rather than giving up dating apps altogether, they decided to create their own.

It seems many dating apps now want to distance themselves from Tinder, even though the tremendous growth of online dating was thanks to Tinder’s swiping technology. Now, instead of endless swiping that goes nowhere, a common complaint among Tinder users, a new app is offering something more intimate: requiring a phone call to connect with a match.

Dating app Hotline launched in New York last month, and is already getting some buzz thanks to its old-school premise: talking on the phone. The app doesn’t let you text until you’ve made at least one phone call and talked to your match first.

A new dating app is inviting singles to take a great big sip of Haterade.

Online daters are usually encouraged to put their best foot forward, bond over shared interests, and keep conversations positive. That is, unless they’re on Hater, a new app that matches users based on mutual dislikes.

Founded in 2016, Hater promises to make serious online dating more approachable by replacing cumbersome surveys and bios with a fun, alternative way to express your personality (and let out your frustrations over slow walkers and paying for extra guacamole).

Snapchat’s success has influenced everyone from Instagram to Facebook, and now Bumble is getting in on the game. The dating app will soon launch BumbleVID, a feature that allows users to create stories with unlimited 10-second videos that automatically delete after 24 hours.

BumbleVID will be familiar to singles who already use Snapchat and Instagram. Users can record their videos from directly within the Bumble app, and personalize their clips by drawing on the videos. Eventually the company plans to introduce additional features, like filters and geotagging, that will also be recognizable to regular social media users.

After a video is posted to a profile, it can be viewed by anyone who comes across the profile while swiping. The videos will also appear on the connections and conversations page, providing easy access to the video stories of anyone you’re connected with or currently talking to.