Features

Online dating industry giant Match is looking to distinguish itself from the more popular dating apps like Bumble or Tinder. In an effort do this and to attract new customers, Match unveiled “Missed Connections,” a location-based feature that allows users to see other members they have crossed paths with in real life.

For example, if you walked in your neighborhood park this morning or grabbed coffee at your favorite coffee shop, you can see who on Match did the same and reach out to them.

The new feature offers a more organic approach to dating. Match hopes it will help people connect more easily in real life instead of relying on messaging, which has become an issue with many dating app users. In Match’s upcoming “Singles in America” survey (which will debut in early February), 55% of singles say they feel that technology has made it more difficult to connect with others in real life.

See Date Spots and Mixtape

Coffee Meets Bagel has launched two new tools to help its busy singles find love.

Since 2012, Coffee Meets Bagel has strived to stand out from the swipe-saturated mobile dating crowd. The app makes dating efficient and accessible by presenting members with one curated match each day at noon, eliminating the need to sink hours into searching.

The stripped-back strategy won over users around the world, and Coffee Meets Bagel has steadily expanded its reach and offerings over the years. The company secured $7.8 million in a Series A financing round back in 2015 and has introduced an array of new features, including Photo Lab and Send A Woo, in the time since.

The latest additions to the CMB family come courtesy of collaborations with Yelp and Spotify. The pair of web apps, called DateSpots.co and Mixtape, are designed to ease the awkwardness of getting to know someone new.

How to use BumbleVID

Do you think a few photos provide enough information to determine whether or not someone is a good match? The makers of dating app Bumble think they aren't, and that video can help.

The popular female-centric dating app will soon release BumbleVID, which will allow users to create a video "story" with unlimited 10-second videos, which will each delete after 24 hours. According to Bumble founder Whitney Wolfe, the video feature was inspired by Snapchat.

To make sure the videos are current, Bumble asks users to record their 10-second features within the app, which then posts to their profiles. If someone wants to use a pre-recorded video from their phone or another source, it has to have been recorded within the last 24 hours. These videos will also be marked with a tag saying they weren’t posted “live.” The new BumbleVID feature also lets users send their videos to specific matches.

Binging on Netflix has become a social occasion, with friends gathering together to watch their favorite shows and movies in the comfort of home. Now, Tinder has proposed that online dating can be a social occasion, too - and like Netflix, experienced via your TV.

This past December (notably in time for the holidays), the company launched Tinder for Apple TV, which allows you to search for dates on the big screen, presumably with your friends gathered round to comment. The tvOSapp for Apple TV allows you to swipe left and right on potential dates on the big screen to make it a group activity. Perhaps while you’re opening presents or eating turkey and pumpkin pie with your family?

It’s the same Tinder as the version that lives on your phone, but available for display so your friends and family don’t have to squint or pass your phone around to give you their opinions.

“With a new, swipeable remote control and the world’s hottest app now in HD, modern dating is taking a page from the age-old book of matchmaking,” reads the Tinder announcement of the new tvOS app. “Let’s face it—the people who know you best have traditionally had a high rate of success when helping you pick a partner.”

There’s only so much you can learn from carefully curated photos and sparsely filled out profiles. Plenty stretch the truth, resulting in more disappointing first dates than we’d care to try to count. Spin the Bottle, a new video dating app, hopes to solve the problem by skipping straight to actual eye contact.

"With so many 'swipe left, swipe right' dating apps out there right now, we wanted a way to take people beyond the often misleading, perfectly manicured profile pictures and get them right to face time," said Matthew Cohen, CEO and co-founder of Spin Labs, the company behind Spin the Bottle. "Looking into someone's eyes and having a conversation... can be much more revealing than reading a list of interests and seeing a gallery of heavily edited, perfectly filtered selfies."

A new take on the classic party game, Spin the Bottle reimagines the online dating experience with 30 second live video speed dates. The premise is simple: a player gives the bottle their best spin with a swipe, and when it stops, they begin a 30 second video chat date with their match. If they're feeling a spark, they can tap an icon to give their date a kiss and wait for one in return. Two kisses and it's a match.

eHarmony Compatibility Scoring

Ever wondered why eHarmony thinks you are more compatible with some matches than others? Now, the company is offering a look behind the curtain of its secretive matching algorithm by unveiling key dimensions of compatibility to users.

The veteran online dating company is introducing a new compatibility scoring feature called “The Two of You Together,” where people can identify the matches who score at an advanced level of compatibility. This feature will show the top three attributes for matches that predict successful and lasting relationships. In addition, users can drill down to see how a match scores on all dimensions such as emotional energy, kindness and intellect, and learn more about what each means.

Previously, each new eHarmony member was provided with an analysis of his/her personality type and preferences, including strengths and weaknesses when it comes to forming relationships. This new feature adds depth to this process by showing “behind the scenes” why you might connect better with one match than another.