Image: Bumble

Bumble Inc has taken a big step in assisting users who have experienced sexual assault and abuse through its new online trauma support center, created in partnership with Bloom and now available to users of its Bumble and Badoo dating apps.

The support center offers online courses to help with emotional healing, and is available to users who report sexual assault or relationship abuse over the apps. They will receive a code for free access to a customized version of Bloom’s support specific to daters, with three self-guided courses: Healing from Sexual Trauma; Society, Patriarchy, and Sexual Trauma; and Dating, Boundaries, and Relationships. The dating apps will also offer one-on-one chat support and up to six therapy sessions for certain cases.

Kenya Fairley, Bumble’s Head of Member Safety Support said in a statement: “We are grateful to be able to remove many known barriers that survivors face when seeking trauma support, from privacy to cost, to allow them the opportunity to begin their healing journey at their own pace."

Match Group has won the lawsuit it brought against dating app Muzmatch for trademark infringement violation.

According to The Guardian, the UK intellectual property and enterprise court ruled in favor of Match, which owns popular apps like Tinder and Hinge. Muzmatch, a niche dating app for Muslim singles, could now be forced to change its name or pay damages, according to The New York Times.

Match Group claimed in the lawsuit that consumers might think Muzmatch was a “sub-brand” of theirs targeting Muslim daters because of its name. Deputy high court judge Nicholas Caddick QC agreed, stating that using “match” in its name “would have led some consumers to assume that the goods and services offered by Muzmatch were somehow connected with or derived from Match,” according to The Guardian.

Dating apps are having a moment since the pandemic began, and new ones have launched this year that are expanding options for how to connect with others beyond just a swipe. 

Tinder and Bumble are by far the most popular apps, but many singles are looking for something different than your typical swiping experience that instead caters to social habits and lifestyles. Elle Magazine highlighted a few new apps to watch in their latest dating app round up, including some noteworthy ones that are following post-pandemic dating needs:

Dating app Bumble has been urging states to pass bills similar to the one it initiated in Texas, which makes it illegal for people to send unsolicited nude photos electronically. In mid-April, Virginia passed such a bill into law.

According to the new law, any adult sending an unsolicited “intimate image” electronically to another adult could be fined up to $500. The law defines intimate image as a “photo, film, video, recording, digital picture or other visual reproduction of a person 18 years of age or older who is in a state of undress so as to expose the human male or female genitals.”  

USA Today spoke with Bumble about how company's head of public policy for the Americas, Payton Iheme, reached out to Virginia Senator Jennifer McClellan for help with the legislation, since the company had success a few years ago passing a similar bill in Texas. The Virginia Senate had voted down another lewd photos bill two years before that carried criminal penalties, but since the new bill introduced civil penalties only, lawmakers felt more comfortable passing it into law.

Image: Tinder

Tinder announced the launch of its new feature Festival Mode, designed to bring singles together through their mutual love of live music.

The dating app company partnered with Live Nation, as well as event producers AEG Presents and Superstruct Entertainment to offer users who plan to attend festivals this year the opportunity to connect with other attendees over the app, so they can meet up. Participants can match with others as early as a month before the event, and the app will feature over 20 of the biggest festivals across the globe, including The Governors Ball, Bonnaroo, Stagecoach and EDC Las Vegas, as well as Lollapalooza Paris, Falls Festival in Australia, Sonar in Spain and All Points East in the UK. 

The feature will also include a “Festival Goers” space for those who don’t see their event listed or simply want to be part of “festival culture,” according to Tinder’s press release. Festival Mode will be part of the Explore section of the app.

Seventy percent of American singles felt that dating got harder during the pandemic, according to the latest research from Pew.

In 2019, before the pandemic took hold, about two thirds of singles said that dating was hard, compared to the new Pew study which took place February 2022, where roughly seven in ten singles said it was hard. 

This finding comes on the heels of the most profitable couple of years for the dating app industry, as people locked down at home and turned to dating apps for connection. Subscriptions and revenue rose for many dating app companies, but daters seem to be left wanting more.