Technology

Nevermet, a new dating app that operates exclusively in the metaverse, aims to help people cultivate virtual relationships instead of encouraging them to meet IRL.

Nevermet was designed specifically for VR users who are looking for a virtual dating experience. Users can create a profile with traditional dating app preferences like age and gender filters, but the big difference is no physical address is necessary because the app isn’t location-based. Instead, users add a virtual location like Rec Room, Horizon Worlds, or VRChat where they can be found. 

When the profile is complete, users can swipe through potential matches, but instead of real-life photos, they see only a VR avatar of their matches. According to Virtual Reality Times, the app is monitored to ensure people aren’t posting real photos.

A young dater joined dating app Hinge and was swindled out of $390,000 in a fraud scheme involving cryptocurrency.

According to USA Today, 24 year-old Nicole Hutchinson of Tennessee signed up for the popular dating app looking to meet someone in California, where she had planned to move. She had almost $300,000 from the sale of her late mother’s house and was looking to build a life somewhere new.

She matched with a man named “Hao” according to reports, and after he told her he was born in the same town as where she was adopted, she felt a connection and continued texting him over WhatsApp. He told her he was knowledgeable about the cryptocurrency market and wanted to “teach her” how to invest.

Online dating might be heading towards a sea change as VC firms invested about $31 million in 43 rounds of funding towards new dating apps in 2021. 

According to website Crunchbase which studies technology trends, the majority of companies raised angel, pre-seed and seed rounds, which means venture capitalist firms were interested in early-stage developments. (There were only three who received Series-A funding.)

Crunchbase also noted that every ten years there seems to be a shift in consumer preferences when it comes to dating app technology, and it usually follows the larger social app trends. Ten years ago, Instagram was the hot new app and dating apps like Tinder gamified their platforms to put photos front and center, where users could just look and swipe. 

Apple has complied with the rules of Dutch regulators to allow third party payment systems for dating apps instead of going through the Apple Store. However, it will be charging a 27 percent commission to allow these platforms to operate.

Tech Crunch reported that dating apps in the Netherlands are no longer required to go through the Apple Store for handling payments and billing questions, nor are they required to pay Apple 30 percent for each transaction made over a dating app. The Netherlands Authority for Consumers and Markets previously fined Apple $5 million euros per week until it complied with its order.

However, dating app developers who use a third-party payment system are now required by Apple to pay a new commission of 27 percent, just slightly below the old charge. Apple is also requiring app developers to send a report of digital sales so they can invoice. And  as Tech Crunch pointed out, dating app developers looking to expand offerings to the Netherlands will have to submit two different apps for approval – the Dutch app and non-Dutch app.

Tinder is adding more features to ramp up safety for its users, including background checks and educating staff on how to handle reports of abuse.

The dating app company announced the new measures in a blog post, noting that all customer service team members are now being trained on “how survivors might respond to sexual violence and describe those experiences, how to recognize serious reports that may use vague language, and how to respond in a trauma-informed manner to these types of reports,” according to the company’s blog post.

Last year, Tinder’s parent company Match Group invested in the safety nonprofit Garbo, which will be providing the background checks for users. Garbo can check a wide variety of public records on a potential match, and notify a user if the match has a history of violence, as well as any other potential issues like DUIs or vehicular manslaughter. The company doesn’t include drug possession charges or minor traffic violations in its reporting. 

Apple has been fined five million euros for not complying with a recent ruling regarding dating apps leveled by the Authority for Consumers and Markets, a watchdog agency in The Netherlands.

The ACM said that Apple had not yet complied with its order to allow third-party payment options for dating apps on the Apple Store platform, which was issued in late December. The agency also said that it would continue to fine Apple five million euros per week (roughly $5.6 million US) until it properly complies with the order, up to $50 million euros in total, according to The Verge.

The issue is that while developers can now let Apple know if they are interested in using third party payment systems in their apps, Apple has not provided a straightforward way to do this, and there is very little technical support in place from Apple to help developers move forward. Another issue is that Apple is forcing developers to choose between two options: directing users to a third-party site to complete transactions outside of the Apple Store, or to stay in the Store’s ecosystem if they want to keep in-app purchases as an option for users.