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For heterosexual, cisgender singles, online dating offers a mind-boggling number of opportunities to swipe your way to your next date. There are apps for vegetarians, vegans and bacon enthusiasts, apps for farmers, apps for sea captains, apps for geeks, apps for dog lovers, apps for affairs, apps for hooking up on airplanes, apps for spiritual singles and members of different faiths, apps based on political leanings, exclusive apps for A-listers — and that’s on top of Tinder, Bumble, Match, Hinge, OkCupid and the other general dating apps that dominate the market.

For queer singles, the landscape looks different. Grindr changed the game for men seeking men, but no app for anyone else on the queer spectrum has reached the same level of success. That may change with Lex — a new app that grew out of a missed connections Instagram page. Lex describes itself as a dating and social platform for lesbian, bisexual, asexual, womxn, non-binary, trans, genderqueer, intersex, two spirit and queer people. In other words, almost anyone but cisgender men.

And that’s not all that sets Lex apart. The original Instagram account was inspired by the personal ads found in On Our Backs, a women-run erotica magazine published in the 1980s and 1990s. In a similar vein, Lex profiles are text-only personal ads. There are no photos unless a user elects to link their Instagram account to their profile. Although it’s an old school approach, it feels brazen and modern in an era when profiles are getting shorter and swiping through images is the preferred method of connection for millions of singles.

UK-based dating app Butterfly, catering specifically to transgendered daters, has just launched in India, according to Quartz.

India is becoming a hot market for the dating app industry and is a big focus for Match Group and Bumble, who have launched high-profile campaigns to promote their dating apps in the country, including investing in celebrity partnerships and hiring regional managers. 

However, transgendered daters are finding it hard to find love on dating apps, especially in India, even as they take off.

Say Allo, a smart dating app that debuted in the United States in 2018, is making its way into the Canadian market. The “relationship discovery” platform harnesses the power of artificial intelligence and a continuous learning algorithm to help singles foster meaningful connections for long-term relationships. The app is now available in Montreal.

Say Allo relies on proprietary SmartSwipe™ technology. By combining AI and face-mapping technologies, SmartSwipe™ learns about your behaviors, interests, preferences. The more time you spend on the app, the more useful knowledge it gleans. SmartSwipe™ is so advanced it can even detect the facial features you prefer in a partner.

Tencent, China’s largest social networking platform and operator of the immensely popular app WeChat, has launched a new dating app that seems positioned to compete with both Tinder and Tantan, China’s most popular dating app.

Qingliao - roughly translated as “light chat” – is kind of a hybrid of different dating app features already on the market. There is no swiping, but users can choose to “like” or “pass” on a potential match by choosing an “X” or a heart. When two users are matched, they can start chatting, according to details described in South China Morning Post.

Got the hots for your married boss? Or the cutie in accounting? If you’ve fantasized about having a fling with a taken colleague, a naughty new dating service is here to help.

Affair at Work is designed to help attached employees “safely” cheat on their partners in the workplace. Although dating services for affair-seekers are nothing new (Ashley Madison is the most notable among them), Affair at Work takes a slightly different approach. The service works via Instagram and is centered around the idea of verifying if an office crush shares your interest.

Dating.com Group is expanding its suite of dating apps by acquiring Dil Mil, a San Francisco-based dating app that is popular among ex-pats from India and South Asian countries, according to Tech Crunch.

South Asian ex-pats are less interested in arranged marriages, and have turned to dating apps to help find love in the U.S. However, most popular American dating apps like Tinder and OkCupid aren’t culturally appealing to this group of daters, who are more conservative and traditional in their approach to dating.