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What if the next big thing in online dating didn’t cost you a dime? That’s the scenario playing out at Facebook Dating. According to a recent report, the platform now boasts 21.5 million daily active users across 52 countries, marking a moment of serious momentum.

Ever feel like you’ve swiped so much your thumb hurts? That’s not just you. Meta is pushing back against dating-app burnout by embedding a new AI “dating assistant” and a weekly surprise match feature called “Meet Cute” directly into Facebook Dating. These innovations are designed to help skip the endless scroll, but do they bring connection—or risk?

Swipe fatigue—dating burnout from browsing match after match—has become a real barrier for many. To counter that, the assistant enables you to type specific prompts (for example, “find me someone who loves poetry and dogs”) and get help refining your profile and matches. Meet Cute will automatically pair you with someone once a week using algorithmic matchmaking according to the Meta press release.

A new report from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) has found that people are using apps like Facebook, TikTok and dating app Tinder to traffic guns.

The report released in early April found that between 2017 and 2021, a larger percentage of guns were trafficked over online platforms like these than were sold at gun shows, according to The Washington Times.

The ATF investigation found a number of illegal ways people could obtain firearms, including 3.6 percent of illicit sales from online marketplaces like eBay, Craigslist, and OfferUp, 2.7 percent via social platforms like Facebook and Instagram, and 1 percent through social apps like WhatsApp, TikTok and Tinder.

Meta announced it will be shutting down Tuned, its app designed for couples, in mid-September. As of the end of July, it is no longer allowing new users to sign up for the service.

Tuned was launched in April 2020 when Covid lockdowns were taking place around the world. It was positioned as a dating app to help couples better communicate by giving them a platform to exchange notes, photos, voice messages and videos, as well as share music via a Spotify integration. Tuned also let users set their moods and supplied a “check-in” feature with prompts so they could have a starting point to talk about their feelings.

Unfortunately, it didn’t seem to connect with couples. Tech Crunch pointed out that the platform was removed from Facebook Dating and other Meta platforms, which could have impacted its success.

Since Tinder was banned in Pakistan, young singles are flocking to private Facebook groups to meet others to date, even though Facebook Dating is not available in the country.

One of the most popular Facebook groups is Two Rings, a volunteer-run matchmaking group that does not charge its users any fees. It currently has about 228,000 members, and at least 335 couples have found spouses through the group, according to news source Rest of World.

"Instead of waiting on their parents or family to find somebody, they are actually now doing it all on their own," a cofounder of a Facebook dating group for graduates of some of Pakistan’s premier business schools told Business Insider.

Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram and other popular social platforms, has frozen hiring of new staff for some of its divisions, including Facebook Dating.

Meta’s stock price is down almost 43 percent this year, and the company has gotten serious about streamlining its business. It has stopped hiring for certain engineering roles, but also for recruiters and low-level data scientists, according to The Verge. Facebook Dating has had disappointing results despite high expectations when it first launched.

Reviews show that many Facebook Dating users were having problems matching when they used the service and blamed the problem on fake profiles proliferating on the app. Considering the number of dating apps which use Facebook’s authentication system to verify new profiles, it should be easier for the company to get rid of fake accounts to create a better experience for users.