Communication

Did you eat at a new neighborhood cafe for lunch? Do you want to share this over Tinder? There’s a new feature the dating app is testing called “Places,” which lets potential matches know where you’ve been.

Website The Verge broke the story with screenshots of the new feature, showing how GPS tracking can now be used as a way to connect with your dates. The idea behind Places is similar to dating app Happn, where users can see if they had any missed connections during the day, depending on where they’d been. Let’s say you stopped for morning coffee at your local shop and one of your potential matches also happened to be there. Places will alert you so that you can message your match to let her know you were there too, and start a conversation.

Image: Verge

A concerning issue with the new feature is that Tinder is in charge of documenting and revealing your locations to other users. Instead of allowing users to “check in” when they want to share their location, Tinder automatically chooses to reveal or hide the location. For example, you might go to your dentist appointment and then stop for coffee on the way back to work. Tinder won’t report that you’ve been to the dentist, but it might choose to reveal the coffee shop you visited.

Do men and women think differently when it comes to receiving compliments over a dating app? According to a recent study by website AskMen.com, the gender gap in this area is problematic for online dating. Turns out, men and women are in totally different camps when it comes to giving and receiving compliments in the romance department.

AskMen surveyed 1,000 people in 2018 about their preferences for online dating, including ranking their favorite compliments. The purpose? To see where the divide is when reaching out to the opposite sex for a date. If you’re a guy wondering why you don’t hear back from matches after you compliment them on their appearance, this could be the reason. Or if you’re a woman, complimenting a guy on his intelligence isn’t the best way to stir up intrigue and romance, either.

In other words, just because you like receiving compliments about your looks or your personality doesn’t mean the opposite sex thinks the same way! Here’s how the results played out.

Facebook has come under fire, with many longtime users debating whether or not to delete their accounts, rather than make their personal information vulnerable to third parties. But something you might not have considered, brought to light by a reporter from Mashable, is how deleting Facebook might affect your love life.

Many dating apps rely on Facebook to verify profile information – that is, to make sure you really are a person and not a bot or an advertisement. With this in mind, many apps require that you use your Facebook account to login, including Tinder, Bumble, Hinge, and other really popular apps.

Research firm Cambridge Analytica was accused of hijacking data from 50 million Facebook users and using the data to influence the 2016 U.S. election. This information breach was made possible because Facebook relies on third parties for ad revenue, and also partners with research firms like Cambridge Analytica, which leaves its platform open to security problems. Facebook maintains it didn’t know about the information grab, though evidence has come to light via whistleblower Christopher Wylie, who developed the strategy for hijacking and using the data to create targeted political profiles of Americans.

Worried about finding a date for your next event, a wedding, or even a dinner party? Apply to Date is a new dating platform that wants to help you put the word out, and like The Bachelor, encourages other seeking singles to compete for a chance to date you.

Similar to networking apps like LinkedIn, the platform lets you build a sharable web page (like a resume) that allows people to submit applications to date you. You can add your social media, including tweets, Instagram bios, and Snapchat stories on your webpage profile, according to website Mashable.

Apply to Date was created by Lucy Guo, who was looking for a date to her company’s office party and grew tired of swiping and messaging over apps like OkCupid and Tinder. Seeking a new strategy, she turned to her own personal networks, and eventually created a webpage asking people to submit their applications to go on a date with her. She was surprised when she received over 250 applications, and some from former friends she knew back in middle school.

Blockchain technology has become a buzzword these days, thanks to the soaring popularity of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. Now, new dating app companies are incorporating the same blockchain technology into their matching and verification processes to compete with big-name brands like Tinder.

There is a growing need for dating apps to address a persistent problem in online dating: lying and misrepresentation in dating profiles. Most dating apps use social media accounts as a way of verifying profiles, but this hasn’t curbed the proliferation of fake accounts and scammers. Blockchain technology is based in a democratic oversight of users, by users, to improve the overall experience.

Tinder changed the game for online dating, creating a mainstream acceptance of looking for love by swiping over a phone. A large part of the app’s success was gameifying the online dating process – look at a picture, and swipe left or right depending on whether or not you were interested. It was possible to go through dozens of profiles in seconds, making the swiping process more fun than pouring over dating profiles.

Tinder is taking a cue from one of its main rivals. According to a report from MarketWatch, a future update will introduce the ability for female users to decide whether they want to initiate all conversations with future matches.

The ladies-message-first arrangement was made famous by Bumble, which was launched by Tinder co-founder Whitney Wolfe Herd following her acrimonious departure from the company. Unlike its rival, however, Tinder will not make ladies-first messaging the default; instead, any user who wishes to opt in can enable the feature in their settings.

“Often, women don’t really want the pressure of kicking off the conversation, but if they want it, that’s great,” Match Group Chief Executive Mandy Ginsberg told MarketWatch. “Giving people the choice versus telling people how to engage is the big difference.”