Are social media ‘DM slides’ replacing dating apps? Some new data from an AI ‘dating assistant’ suggests this could be happening.
Also this month, researchers have made the shocking discovery that dating app use might potentially be linked to negative mental health and body image. In other dating app-related bombshells, one app is trying to get users to sit in Ikea showroom beds and share meatballs as they get to know each other.
All this and more in our latest dating app news roundup.
Instagram is the most popular dating app (possibly)
Instagram is out-gunning dating apps as the platform of choice for messaging with potential dates, at least among users of one AI dating coach service.
The Rizz ‘dating assistant’ AI app, which launched in 2022, gives you suggestions about how to reply to messages when you upload them to the app. The app’s makers released data to Business Insider, showing that 22 percent of messages uploaded to Rizz were from Instagram.
The next most common platform for messages uploaded to Rizz was iMessage, with 15 percent of message uploads. In joint third position were Tinder and WhatsApp with 11 percent each, followed by Hinge in fifth with 10 percent.
Is the dating app industry decline so sharp, that social media and messaging apps are taking their place? Perhaps to some degree, but Rizz’s data doesn’t tease apart the style of the messages submitted. Messages could come from existing friends or contacts, not just random ‘slides’.
Still it’s good to see that Instagram has a use beyond vacuous influencers hawking wellness products or useless crap to us all.
Rizz CEO Roman Khaves told Business Insider that “Instagram has evolved into this fascinating dual-purpose platform for relationships. Whether it’s sliding into DMs or naturally connecting through shared content, people are both starting and deepening their connections entirely within Instagram”.
Dating apps might be bad for your mental health
Who would have thought that using dating apps could possibly be linked to mental health and wellbeing issues?
A group of researchers based in Australia completed a systematic review of 45 studies that looked at how using dating apps may be connected to issues such as these, with the results published in ScienceDirect.
Out of the studies that looked at body image in relation to dating app use, 85 percent found negative relationships between app use and body image. Around half of the studies looking at mental health and wellbeing found negative relationships between these and dating app use.
The researchers noted that their findings did not infer cause and effect, rather than correlation. It could be the case, for example, that people with these issues are more likely to use dating apps, rather than the use of dating apps leading to problems in these areas.
They wrote that “emphasis on visual content on dating apps can, in turn, cause users to view their appearance as more important than who they are as a person. This process is called self-objectification.”
“People who experience self-objectification are more likely to scrutinise their appearance, potentially leading to body dissatisfaction, body shame, or other issues pertaining to body image,” they added.
New dating app buzzword incoming
Ready for yet another dating buzzword?
Recently the trend of ‘carouselling’ on dating apps was identified. It means chatting to multiple people via various apps, but never bothering to message deeply with any of them. Circling around the chats with the odd “Good day?” and “What’s up”, kind of like a, um, carousel?
This behaviour can be addictive because, according to a Stanford psychiatry professor named Elias Aboujaoude, “dopamine is involved in many, many addictive processes, and there’s some data to suggest that it’s involved in our addiction to the screen.”
Aboujaoude told National Geographic: “To me it’s a very blurry line between what dating apps do and what social media have done. People “start relying on dating apps for self-esteem purposes, for superficial connectedness, for temporary boosts to their mood.”
Maybe we should create a new buzzword meaning: “Asking someone out on an actual date then meeting them in person rather than endlessly chatting about nothing in the app?”
Tinder’s AI to offer alternative to swiping
Tinder is set to roll out an AI matching feature, that is expected to offer a way to match with people on the dating app beyond the classic ‘swipe match’.
With the dating app industry generally on the decline, many apps have been adding AI features to try and claw back users and relevance. Tinder has already rolled out an AI photo finder feature that helps select the best photos for profiles.
The details of the new AI matching function haven’t been revealed, but Match Group CFO Gary Swidler referenced it in calls around the company’s fourth quarter financial results for 2024. He said that the new AI feature would give Tinder users “something other than swiping” as a way to match.
Swidler added: “We want to see a significant number of people engage with that feature and give it a try… we also want to see improvement in quality matches. We want to see that product really deliver for people in terms of enhanced quality matches that will improve the perception of the product, which should help us drive user growth.”
Breeze’s Ikea Valentine’s wheeze
It’s almost Valentine’s Day, so it’s time to brace for the usual cascade of quirky dating app marketing stunts based around February 14, the most romantic/depressing day of the year.
Dating app Breeze seems to have a strong showing this year, having teamed up with minimalist Swedish interiors behemoth Ikea for a campaign. For the promo, a bunch of singles in the UK were matched on their “sleep compatibility”, based on their duvet and mattress preferences.
The paired-up couples will then be sent on dates in Ikea stores, where they will enjoy meatballs in bed together, which doesn’t sound like a recipe for sauce-related innuendo or large dry cleaning bills at all.
Leave a Reply