Advice

If you’ve ever downloaded a dating app, opened it with excitement, and deleted it just a few days later, you’re in good company. Many young adults feel the same way, and for Gen Z in particular, swiping has started to feel more like a chore than a chance at connection.

Think back to your own first experience. Maybe you were sitting with a friend, scrolling and laughing together, only to realize later that none of those matches turned into real conversations. That frustration is exactly what today’s younger daters are feeling, and they're walking away from apps faster than ever.

According to FastCompany and AppsFlyer, 69% of dating apps downloaded in 2025 were deleted within the first month. This is a sign that the industry needs to evolve if it wants to keep Gen Z engaged.

Swipe left on five-year plans, shared values, and lists of deal-breakers? That’s the mindset behind “vibe dating,” a trend spotlighted by VICE. Instead of checking boxes, some Gen Z daters are leaning into one question: “Do we just feel good together?”

“Why chase matches on a screen when your crush might be right beside your desk?” That question is reshaping how many Gen Z daters think about meeting people—offline, at work, and in real life.

Take Caelan, a New Yorker who spent years cycling through dating apps before moving home and heading back into an office. At a holiday party she reconnected with a coworker—friendship first, chemistry next, and suddenly dating felt simple again. For stories like hers, the difference between apps and face-to-face connection can feel astronomical.

Tinder Dating Handbook

Image: Tinder

On International Women’s Day, Tinder announced the launch of Her New Dating Rule Book, a guide to challenging dating norms and traditions for singles in India.

According to Mashable India, the new guide offers new “rules” for dating today, including who should foot the bill on a first date. Traditionally, it’s been the man, but Tinder says that dating dynamics are changing, and young women in India embrace a more progressive, less traditional approach.

One of the first rules of the guidebook states: “Respect Over Outdated Gender Roles, a.k.a. Chivalry 2.0,” to highlight the fact that young singles are looking for mutual respect and dates who keep promises over outdated notions of chivalry, like expecting a man to pay for a meal. And 36 percent surveyed said they value dates who give their full attention and put the phone away on the date.

A new study found that men who post pictures with their dogs have a higher match rate on dating apps than those who don’t.

According to the journal Evolutionary Psychological Science which published the study, men who wanted long-term relationships also tended to pose with their dogs for dating app photos, compared to those looking for short-term flings, who were much more likely to pose with status symbols like boats or motorcycles, or show off their bare chests.

The study looked at 750 dating profiles, with 225 men and women each seeking long-term relationships, and 225 men looking for a casual relationship.

Plenty of Fish has published their annual dating trends study and found that many young singles are using terms like “smutten” and “freak matching” to describe their dating experiences.

Each year there are new words in the cultural zeitgeist to describe dating scenarios, and Plenty of Fish has delved into what is trending. The company surveyed 6,000 U.S. members and found that TikTok and Instagram continue to heavily influence peoples’ perspectives on dating, though terms might have evolved.

According to their press release, one dating trend POF found was that 33 percent of singles said they have felt “smutten,” (a play on smut and smitten), fantasizing about their own dating lives based on characters from tv shows and romance novels that they have enjoyed. (Forbidden love and enemies to lovers are popular romance tropes, and over a third of respondents said they imagine their dates mimicking these storylines.) More women have looked for these fantasies to play out in their dating lives than men (women at 40 percent, men at 28 percent), though both sexes do this.