Online Dating

China-based dating app Yumi has started beta testing experiences in its new metaverse, called Meta Town, hoping to attract young Gen Z daters who are interested in immersive experiences.

Users can create avatars based on their photos, explore the metaverse to find other virtual daters, and have real-time audio conversations with “artificial intelligence-powered translation,” according to the South China Morning Post, making it easier for daters who don’t speak the same language to connect.

The metaverse is a platform where people can interact via avatars in real time and in different virtual spaces, often with the ability to exchange virtual goods and services. 

Tinder is adding more features to ramp up safety for its users, including background checks and educating staff on how to handle reports of abuse.

The dating app company announced the new measures in a blog post, noting that all customer service team members are now being trained on “how survivors might respond to sexual violence and describe those experiences, how to recognize serious reports that may use vague language, and how to respond in a trauma-informed manner to these types of reports,” according to the company’s blog post.

Last year, Tinder’s parent company Match Group invested in the safety nonprofit Garbo, which will be providing the background checks for users. Garbo can check a wide variety of public records on a potential match, and notify a user if the match has a history of violence, as well as any other potential issues like DUIs or vehicular manslaughter. The company doesn’t include drug possession charges or minor traffic violations in its reporting. 

Apple has been fined five million euros for not complying with a recent ruling regarding dating apps leveled by the Authority for Consumers and Markets, a watchdog agency in The Netherlands.

The ACM said that Apple had not yet complied with its order to allow third-party payment options for dating apps on the Apple Store platform, which was issued in late December. The agency also said that it would continue to fine Apple five million euros per week (roughly $5.6 million US) until it properly complies with the order, up to $50 million euros in total, according to The Verge.

The issue is that while developers can now let Apple know if they are interested in using third party payment systems in their apps, Apple has not provided a straightforward way to do this, and there is very little technical support in place from Apple to help developers move forward. Another issue is that Apple is forcing developers to choose between two options: directing users to a third-party site to complete transactions outside of the Apple Store, or to stay in the Store’s ecosystem if they want to keep in-app purchases as an option for users.

Hinge is giving some love to single Moms this Valentine’s Day, offering $100 in childcare stipends so that they can make plans for a date.

According to the company’s press release, the popular dating app kicked off the campaign on Friday, February 4th ahead of Valentine’s Day. Users who have selected “Have Children” in their profiles will receive an opt-in notification at that time. To be eligible to receive the gift, those who opt in must also comment on someone’s profile that same day. The gift cards will be sent via email to each selected parent, according to the release.

The campaign is in partnership with French singer-songwriter Soko, who is also a single parent. Soko wanted to focus especially on the LGBTQ+ community and encourage discussions on “how to prioritize responsibilities as a parent while also making time to find someone special,” according to the release.

After receiving numerous complaints from their users, dating apps in South Korea are cracking down on users who mask up in their profiles in an attempt to hide their faces.

According to The Korean Herald, this practice has become known as “magikkun,” from the English word “mask” and the Korean word “sagikkun,” which means fraud. People who use masks in their profile photos are assumed to be deceiving potential matches, because they are hiding what they look like in real life. 

Some users are avoiding swiping right on masked-up profiles altogether, where others use video chat or request a selfie from the user before agreeing to meet them in person.

An investigation by a UK consumer rights group found that dating app Tinder is charging users over 30 as much as 48 percent more for its premium service Tinder Plus.

The advocacy group Which? said its findings show that Tinder may be discriminating against older users, a “potential breach of UK law,” according to The Daily Mail. The group has reported its findings to the EHRC (Equality and Human Rights Commission) and the Information Commissioner’s office (ICO) and asked them to investigate. The EHRC found the findings “concerning,” according to The Daily Mail.

Which? asked a sampling of 200 people to create real profiles on the dating app and to find out the pricing for the premium services like Tinder Plus, which unlocks certain popular features like unlimited likes and the ability to “rewind” or go back to check out a profile you already swiped left on.