Communication

Blockchain technology has become a buzzword these days, thanks to the soaring popularity of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. Now, new dating app companies are incorporating the same blockchain technology into their matching and verification processes to compete with big-name brands like Tinder.

There is a growing need for dating apps to address a persistent problem in online dating: lying and misrepresentation in dating profiles. Most dating apps use social media accounts as a way of verifying profiles, but this hasn’t curbed the proliferation of fake accounts and scammers. Blockchain technology is based in a democratic oversight of users, by users, to improve the overall experience.

Tinder changed the game for online dating, creating a mainstream acceptance of looking for love by swiping over a phone. A large part of the app’s success was gameifying the online dating process – look at a picture, and swipe left or right depending on whether or not you were interested. It was possible to go through dozens of profiles in seconds, making the swiping process more fun than pouring over dating profiles.

Tinder is taking a cue from one of its main rivals. According to a report from MarketWatch, a future update will introduce the ability for female users to decide whether they want to initiate all conversations with future matches.

The ladies-message-first arrangement was made famous by Bumble, which was launched by Tinder co-founder Whitney Wolfe Herd following her acrimonious departure from the company. Unlike its rival, however, Tinder will not make ladies-first messaging the default; instead, any user who wishes to opt in can enable the feature in their settings.

“Often, women don’t really want the pressure of kicking off the conversation, but if they want it, that’s great,” Match Group Chief Executive Mandy Ginsberg told MarketWatch. “Giving people the choice versus telling people how to engage is the big difference.”

Emojis have come a long way since they first invaded our phones with their colorful cartoon depictions of food, faces, furry creatures, and other now-iconic symbols. Updates have given us mythical creatures, a hand taking a selfie, and a much-hyped avocado.

The most important change by far came in 2015, when an Apple update made emojis available for a diverse range of skin tones and same-sex couples for the first time. It was progress, but for a group of advocates that includes Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian and Emojination founder Jennifer 8. Lee, it wasn’t progress enough.

They have joined forces with Tinder to launch a campaign to petition the Unicode Consortium to introduce interracial couple emoji. Currently, the emoji featuring couples only show people of the same race. Under the new proposal, 21 different combinations of gender and race would be possible.

Match Group has a new CEO, and she’s determined to provide a better online dating experience for women. In a recent interview with Marketwatch, Mandy Ginsberg revealed that Tinder will be debuting a new feature that lets women choose whether or not they want to make the first move. She has female-friendly plans for their other properties as well, including Match and OkCupid.

Tinder’s new feature competes directly with dating app Bumble, which has seen incredible growth since its debut. Bumble differs slightly in that women automatically get to make the first move, rather than choosing.

Ginsberg has also launched a new campaign for OkCupid that “emphasizes shared hobbies over hookups.”

Do dating apps kill the romance of dating, or are they actually helping bring more people together? A lively debate on this topic was held the night of February 6^th in New York, with a panel of experts arguing for and against the motion: Dating Apps Have Killed Romance.

Let’s face it, if you’ve tried online dating, or had a friend who’s dabbled in it (more than 49 million Americans have), chances are you’ve heard a few horror stories. This was the focus of the argument from Eric Klinenberg, co-author with Aziz Ansari of the book Modern Romance, and Manoush Zamoroti, podcast host and journalist who argued for the motion. Citing stories of dates and relationships gone wrong, they argued that not only have dating apps killed romance, they have killed civility among daters. Ultimately, apps have changed the dating culture, and not for the better.

They argued that online dating specifically breeds bad behavior, because people are able to hide behind a screen – or worse, they have stopped interacting or knowing how to interact in real life. Zamoroti gave an example of one of her podcast listeners walking into a bar and seeing a line of single men ordering drinks and swiping on Tinder, ignoring the people around them completely. Plus, some online daters have become emboldened to send lude messages online, which makes the experience even more painful and depressing for other daters.

Are you watching the Winter Olympics? Maybe you’ve fantasized about what it would be like to meet one of the athletes, especially because they are competing at peak physical fitness – what’s not to love?

Some Tinder users are taking it a step further and actually changing their locations to match with Olympic athletes.

Tinder users with a premium service such as Tinder Plus or Tinder Gold have the option to use the “Passport” feature, which allows them to change their location so they can swipe left and right on matches from any other city in the world. This feature was created for those who travel and want to connect with people in more than one place.