Jamie F
We’re half way through March 2024, and back with another roundup of dating app news updates, and this month’s update has a whole load of interesting developments to check out, so we’ll waste no more time here.
Match Group goes all in on ChatGPT
We should prepare to torch any remaining doubts about whether AI represents the future of dating apps, following the announcement of a major deal between Match Group, owner of Tinder and Hinge among many other dating services, and ChatGPT.
ChatGPT announced that Match Group had bought 1,000 ChatGPT enterprise licenses – licenses to use the service for various tasks – saying that Match Group employees were “leveraging this tech to jazz up communications, coding, design, analysis, build templates, and eliminate a lot of the daily grind.”
The details about how ChatGPT will be used further in the creation and management of Match Group’s apps has not been revealed, but the announcement suggested that the AI chatbot’s use would be sweeping. Whether it could lead to the “elimination” of humans’ jobs as well as “a lot of the daily grind” is also yet to be seen.
Earlier this year Match Group CEO Bernard Kim said: “I believe that AI is existential to the future of Match Group and our business. I envision AI to be felt through the entire experience, influencing everything from profile creation to matching to connecting for dates. Literally everything.”
Tinder’s rolling out full verification UK, Brazil, US & Mexico
Staying with Tinder, the app has announced that its ID Verification option will be rolled out in the UK and Brazil by spring 2024, then in the US and Mexico by summer.
The function, already piloted in Australia and New Zealand, allows you to verify yourself with a video selfie plus a drivers’ license or passport to get a blue check mark. The process should give you confidence that you’re not matching with a catfisher or other nefarious swiper.
The process also seems to get you more matches. Tinder said that verified users in New Zealand and Australia enjoyed a 67 percent spike in the amount of matches they got.
Score: an app for “financially like-minded people”
Many people judge potential dates on their career success, salary and whether they’re a saver or a spender, so it’s not so strange that a new app based around credit score has launched.
To join the app (cunningly also named Score) in the US, you need a credit score of at least 675. It was announced in February 2024 by the financial platform Neon Money Club, so seems something of a marketing wheeze, but one that’s gained traction online. When you join the app, Neon Money Club runs a soft credit check on you, then allows you to join if you score highly enough.
The app is only set to be available for a few months, aka when the marketing cycle of the campaign probably runs its course. Its makers claim it does serve a useful function, though: connecting “financially like-minded people”.
Thankfully, the app doesn’t get as granular with credit scores as actually making your score viewable by other users, so you can just judge them on their surface level attractiveness as usual.
Bumble looks for new buzz
Bumble is attempting to fight back against the general slowdown in dating app takeup among young people by preparing for a relaunch later in 2024.
The women-first app is set to make profile creation much easier on the app, presumably in an attempt to cater for shorter attention spans aka Gen Z users. General app performance is expected to be improved as part of the relaunch, although details about what else will change are so far scant.
One switch-up has been taking an axe to the Bumble staff list. The company recently revealed that around 30 percent of its global staff – around 350 people – will be let go.
Bumble may well argue that drastic times call for drastic measures. According to a recent Axios/Generations Lab survey, 79 percent of US college and graduate students said they didn’t use any dating apps.
Bumble’s success, along with that of its predecessor Tinder, was built on its Millennial user base, much of which is now partnered up. Tinder recently had a ‘rizz-first’ redesign in an attempt to appeal to younger users, and has launched edgy, youth-focused advertising campaigns.
Whether Bumble can tap into this crowd, or just have a future as that app your aunt uses, remains to be seen.
Make dating app matches, not war
In a move that sounds like the precursor to a very modern romantic comedy film about finding love in conflict, dating app users in Israel have been reporting that they have been presented with profiles of users in Lebanon, and vice-versa.
Israel is technically at war with Lebanon, and there are currently tensions on the border between the countries, with Lebanese citizens currently banned from having contact with Israeli citizens.
The dating app issue, some have proffered, may be due to GPS jamming taking place in the range of Israeli app users, resulting in location-tracking issues. L’Orient-Le Jour,the French-language newspaper based in Lebanon, Israeli profiles accounted for up to 62 per cent of the profiles seen on Tinder in Lebanon in the month of February 2024.
One Lebanese dating app user said: “I keep seeing them [Israelis] and they’re absolutely gorgeous, but I can’t do anything because we’re divided by an apartheid wall and a genocidal army that doesn’t take too well to Arabs.”
Tinder trains Colombian cops
In other unlikely conflict-related dating app news, Tinder has agreed to train Colombian police officers on the app’s crime reporting portal, following a rise in the amount of ‘drug-and-rob’ cases linked to dating app use in Medellín.
A report by Rest of World found that Match Group, owner of Tinder, sent delegates to meet with Colombian authorities plus US Embassy and FBI staff in February 2024. The result was Tinder agreeing to help Colombian cops use the crime-reporting function of the app, where they can request in-app information that could help them gather evidence when investigating attacks.
Tinder has also started notifying Tinder users in Colombia that there are “heightened risks” there. Grindr has launched similar warnings in the country this year.
