It’s that time again: many of the world’s greatest athletes are congregating in a temporary town, as they embark on a challenge to hook up with as many… sorry, we mean, compete to win medals for sporting achievement.
Yes, the 2026 Winter Olympics are kicking off in Italy, and once again Grindr has rolled out safety features to protect athletes in the Olympic Village from potentially being identified as users of the app, should that have potential to put them in a spot of bother.
Elsewhere the man who launched Hinge has left the app to launch a new AI-assisted dating app, plus yet more money is being poured into AI dating through the rise of Ditto, and Tinder looks set to have to make a sizeable payout for allegedly making over-30s pay more for app tiers.
All this and more in our latest dating app news roundup.
Grindr prepares for Winter Olympics rush
Grindr is restricting location features for users located in the Olympic Village for the 2026 Winter Olympics in Italy, largely to help protect athletes who may come from countries where being gay is illegal or dangerous.
Olympic villages are notoriously hotbeds of hook-ups, with thousands of well-toned young athletes from around the world packed into close-knit accommodation, with many high on the whiff of medals. Dating apps like Grindr pop off as Olympic games unfurl.
Grindr first restricted location features in this way for the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, then again for the Paris 2024 Summer Olympics. Now protection methods will be rolled out for the 2026 winter event in Lombardy and Northeast Italy, which begins on February 6.
“When the Olympics come around, athletes face a level of global attention that doesn’t exist anywhere else – on the podium and off,” Grindr said. “For gay athletes, especially those who aren’t out or who come from countries where being gay is dangerous or illegal, that visibility creates real safety risks.”
For the duration of the Olympic games, the Explore and Roam functions will be turned off for users within the Olympic Village in Milan, so that no-one outside the Village boundaries will be able to browse profiles of people inside the Village, or message them.
Also, the Show Distance function will default to ‘off’ for Grindr users in the village. This means that their distance from other users won’t be shown. Users will be able to change the function so their approximate distance from other users is shown.
Some functions that usually need to be paid for within the app will be free for users within the Olympic Village. These include messages that disappear after they’re read, an ‘unsend’ function that removes messages from both sides of a conversation, and screenshot blocking of profile photo and chat image captures.
The private video function, which normally allows only one video view, will be turned off for users in the Village.
Grindr said that the app usually “shows users who’s nearby and how far away they are. In most contexts, that’s useful. In the Olympic Village where thousands of athletes are packed into a small area, those same features may become a liability.”
The company added: “Someone outside the Village could browse profiles inside it. Distance data could be used to pinpoint someone’s exact location. And simply appearing on Grindr tells the world something about a person’s identity that, in more than 60 countries, remains a criminal offense.”
Let the games begin!
Hinge founder’s new AI dating app raising cash
It seems like the world may actually be able to handle yet more new AI-assisted dating apps being launched, as the founder of Hinge has left that app for a new, as-yet unveiled dating app venture.
Justin McLeod, who founded Hinge in 2011, has stepped down from his role heading up Hinge and will launch a new dating app called Overtone. Match Group, which owns Hinge, will have a stake in the new project.
McLeod has kept tight-lipped with regards to Overtone, but the app is expected to go through fundraising processes soon, having been announced in late 2025. The new app has been described as one that will “help people connect in a more thoughtful and personal way”, and will be AI-driven in some way.
The former Hinge head honcho told Fast Company that the new app was an “opportunity to completely reimagine the dating experience and how technology can help facilitate people finding their partner, that breaks the mold of the way current dating apps are designed.”
And that’s all we know for now about Overtone so far, so it’s tough to predict if it’ll single-handedly save the dating app industry quite yet.
Tinder expected to pay millions over alleged age discrimination
Tinder looks set to pay out a $60.5 million law settlement between hundreds of thousands of app users who claimed they suffered age discrimination by allegedly paying more for Tinder services than younger users.
A Los Angeles Superior Court judge preliminarily approved the settlement, brought by lawyers representing Tinder users aged 30 or above who claimed that they were charged more for Tinder Plus or Tinder Gold than users aged below 30. In recent years Tinder has been attempting to attract younger users to the app.
Around 268,000 California-based Tinder users are covered in the settlement, and a website is expected to be set up soon through which they can claim their share of the payout.
The lawsuit was originally filed in 2015, and accused Tinder’s age-based pricing of violating California’s Unruh Civil Rights Act and Unfair Competition Law. Over the years the case went through a series of court dismissals and rejections before being resurrected and settled at preliminary level.
The takeaway: don’t mess with Millennials when it comes to bills.
The League branches out into India
The League, known as an ‘exclusive’ dating app perhaps rubbing shoulders with the likes of Raya, has launched in India.
To many, the app’s appeal lies in operating like a members’ club, with users needing an endorsement from an existing member to onboard. In-person events are organized by the app, adding to the ‘behind the velvet rope’ feel it’s going for.
Following success in the US, The League recently rolled out in India, with swanky events in Mumbai and Delhi organized for some launch clout. The air of exclusivity was given extra whiff by something called The League Circle: a group of ‘tastemakers’ chosen to promote the app.
Anukool Kumar, a director with Match Group, which acquired The League in 2022, said the app was “designed for ambitious people who know what they want, in life, in love, and in a partner”. And for people who already know a user, so they can actually access it.
Ditto AI dating raises $9.2 million
Another chunk of change going into the AI dating sector comes in the form of Ditto’s latest round of seed funding.
The dating service, launched in 2025 by UC Berkeley college dropouts Allen Wang and Eric Liu, recently got $9.2 million in new investment and is looking to expand its reach beyond California college campuses, where it currently has a total of around 42,000 users.
Ditto users message with the app’s AI text chatbot, rather than having to use an app at all. They message about their ‘type’ and other dating preferences, then on Wednesdays get a text message about a potential match, chosen by the AI. If they match with the presented profile, they can go on to give the AI feedback to help future matches.
Arguably more thrilling than this chatbot function is the fact that the service’s creators are planning yacht parties for LA college students to help promote it, as they look to invest the new millions.
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