The OASIS Consortium published its first set of safety standards for the next generation of the Web, which includes the metaverse. The goal is to create a blueprint for how companies and developers should approach online safety going forward.

The Consortium was founded in 2021 shortly after the insurrection at the Capitol in the U.S., a day where a mob terrorized and threatened lawmakers ahead of the certification of Biden as President. Investigations into the riot have shown how social media, particularly Facebook and its outsized influence, has helped to radicalize people when it comes to their political viewpoints.

According to Time Magazine, The Consortium addresses issues across a number of tech industries, including dating apps, video games, and immersive tech platforms that are leading the way into the metaverse, or what’s called Web 3.0. Leaders from Riot Games, The Meet Group (which owns dating apps like MeetMe, LOVOO, Growlr, and Skout) and others have helped to develop these standards for improving safety and privacy as people spend more time online.

Recipient Stitch

The 2022 winner of the Editor's Top Pick - Up & Coming award is Stitch. While it was launched 6 years ago, these last few years has seen Stitch catch on in more places worldwide with their target demographic of older singles. Its main focus is a community designed to help bring companionship to people 50 and over. It is not just for singles and dating, but this does make up a large portion of their single members goals.

Match Group, owner of the popular dating apps Tinder, OkCupid and Hinge, has sued dating app MuzMatch for Trademark infringement.

The online dating company said that MuzMatch, a British-based matchmaking app for Muslims, has copied their products and services, according to The Daily Mail. Match Group pointed to the use of the word “match” in the app’s metadata, which are keywords used by companies to make their products more prominent in Internet search findings. Match Group says that MuzMatch has included keywords like “match-muslim” and “uk-muslim-match,” which the company says are its registered marks that MuzMatch is co-opting for their own benefit.

MuzMatch rejects the allegations, saying that Match Group doesn’t have claim to the word “match.” The British company also has a U.S. copyright registration for the wordmark “Muzmatch” that has been in place since 2015, as well as in France and Germany.

Dating app Tinder has confirmed it is developing a new interactive feature called Swipe Party, enabling others to virtually join a user as they sort through profiles.

Swipe Party was discovered by Dutch website GratisDatingTips, who spotted new lines of code added to the app’s latest update. Citing further proof of the new feature, the site also discovered that a developer at Tinder had listed Swipe Party as his main development project, further tipping off news outlets like Tech Crunch to what was underway. Tech Crunch confirmed with Tinder that this feature is in development.

There aren’t many details yet about how Swipe Party will work, but Tech Crunch noted that it does involve a user inviting friends to join and enabling the microphone and video functions on the app. The idea is that multiple users can observe as a user looks at profiles, and advise whether to swipe left or right, making choosing a match a group effort.

The new year typically brings new dating trends, and according to Match, Zoomancing, icing out, and coupling season will be the breakout stars, at least in the UK.

Match Dating’s Expert Matchmaker Hayley Quinn has predicted that these trends will take off in the new year, after closely watching the pandemic alter dating habits at an unprecedented level.

“Zoomancing,” or virtual dating, isn’t going away anytime soon, she told the U.K.’s Mirror. In fact, Match reported that 18 percent of its users continue to date virtually, even when they could have met in person. This is in large part due to Covid infection surges throughout the last two years and the emergence of new variants that have continued to cause more concern, even as more people get vaccinated. Lockdowns might not be required anymore, but singles remain cautious with people they are just getting to know. Plus, dating virtually offers people a chance to get to know each other before meeting in real life.

Recipient eHarmony

The 2022 Top Pick - Match System award winner is eHarmony. For those who wish to swipe through endless profiles looking at just the photos need not continue reading as this dating service is all about matching. Your matches are decided by a complex matching algorithm which uses the answers from the Compatibility Quiz you take when you create your eHarmony Profile and are compared with the Compatibility Quiz results with other members on eHarmony. This Compatibility Score defines your mutual compatibility and is based on 32 personality traits. The higher the score the better the long term relationship potential.