If you’ve been following the web dating industry at all, you’ll probably have noticed that during the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of active users of dating apps increased significantly. However, that didn’t last long. Already during2022, popular platforms lost an average of 10-15% of their audience. This reverse trend is still in place.
The drop in interest in dating services doesn’t mean that people have become less inclined to get acquainted on the web. It’s just that the format of classic sites and dating apps has outlived its usefulness a bit. So now the owners of such sites face an important task — to offer their users something new and unique. The era of zoomers is coming, and this audience is very demanding and always in search of new products. That’s why it is necessary not only to involve them, but also to retain their interest competently.
Today we’ll see what attempts are being made by popular dating services to attract and retain new users, how effective they are and what awaits online dating in general in the near future.
New approaches to dating on Tinder, Bumble, Match and Facebook Dating
Tinder added video chat
In 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic and mass lockdown, Tinder’s developers began rolling out an in-app video chat feature to allow users to communicate not only by text, but also by video. It was a really good move that should have been done much sooner.
However, Tinder is legendary for the fact that you literally have to pay for every action. Therefore it’s not surprising that the video chat function turned out to be available only to owners of premium accounts. Moreover, in order for you to be able to chat with a person via video, they must also have a premium account. This creates a lot of inconvenience and has caused some dissatisfaction among users.
Therefore, for those who want to communicate via video, it’s better to use online video chat rather than Tinder. Here are just a few examples of such platforms:
- Azar — sort of a combination of a random video chat, messenger and video streaming platform. It’s obvious that such functionality will not be useful for every single user. But if you’re looking for a truly versatile dating and chatting app, Azar can be a pretty good option.
- Chatous — a video chat app for iOS and Android smartphones. Although it cannot boast of extensive functionality, it still has several interesting features. For example, in the application, you can exchange short video messages up to six seconds long, as well as search for people by interest using the appropriate hashtags.
- Omegle TV — an online video chat, the main advantage of which is an unbeatable gender filter. OmegleTV.Chat knows how to connect men with girls only, and does not make mistakes. Go to Omegle TV chat if you’re looking for a good support service. In addition to this, this video chat service has a built-in message translator.
- Chathub — quite a simple video chat, in which only gender and language filters can be applied in search settings. But for many users, this will be enough. Chathub also does not have a mobile app, and there is no information development of one just yet. However the site is quite well adapted for mobile devices, so you won’t have any difficulties using it on your smartphone.
- Shagle — another simple online video chat, but with a lot more features than Chathub. There are gender and geographic filters, and you can give virtual gifts to other users. The app’s developers place special emphasis on anonymity and confidentiality.
Online video chat opens up enormous opportunities to you for dating and communication. And most importantly, they are either completely free or much cheaper than premium access on Tinder, for example. Therefore, if you want to not only comfortably communicate with new people, but also save money, we recommend trying video chat today!
Bumble placed emphasis on a “women-owned businesses” strategy
By now you must know that in Bumble the women make the first move. A man cannot write to a woman first, and especially not call her via video. This structure has been very warmly received by the female audience.
But Bumble has gone a step further. The company is now actively pursuing a strategy whereby all major management roles go to women. At the same time, developers pay special attention to the safety of their users. In particular, they’ve introduced elements of artificial intelligence that analyze messages, media files, and other things that may be contrary to the rules of the site. This is really important in our current reality, especially as users are more likely to trust sites and apps that take great care of their privacy.
Match continued to improve its matchmaking algorithms
The Match service is one of the pioneers in the world of web dating. The company constantly upgrades its algorithms and tries to do everything possible to make every user match as successful as possible. As Match CEO Mandy Ginsberg says, “The holy grail of our industry is finding ways to use technology to better predict whether this chemistry will hold up in real life.” In addition, Ginsberg points out that the company has now begun hiring more data scientists and changing algorithms that will track the actual behavior of users, and not just the information provided to them in a profile. And that’s definitely a ticket for success.
Over the years, Match has truly upgraded its matching algorithms very convincingly, and has become a benchmark for many other services. At the same time, developers are trying to make sure that users do not become addicted to web dating. Recently, a function was launched on the platform that selects the five most successful matches for the user every day. This is enough to let you consider interesting candidates, but at the same time not get stuck on the site for several hours.
Facebook Dating uses data from user accounts to find the best matches
Facebook Dating is a relatively new player in the arena of online dating services. But it definitely has one major advantage — a huge user base with detailed information on each of them.
Mark Zuckerberg says: “There are 200 million people on Facebook who describe themselves as single. And if we are looking to build meaningful relationships, then this is perhaps the most significant of all.”
Facebook Dating has every chance of becoming a very popular platform for online dating. But at the same time, it is worth noting that the social network side of Facebook itself has been rapidly losing its audience in recent months. And so far, this trend doesn’t look like it’s going to change anytime soon.
What awaits web dating in the future?
We can safely say that online dating is not going anywhere for the foreseeable future. But in the same way, we can confidently assert that it will change, and change again. Traditional swiping as an element of gamification no longer works as intended by developers. And endless surveys with questionnaires only cause fatigue for the user. Therefore, sites and applications will gradually move away from these formats. At the same time, pair selection algorithms will continue to improve. So far, only the Hinge service can boast of originality in this regard. The rest work on approximately the same principles.
As far as video chat services are concerned, they will most likely remain largely unchanged over the next few years. And the changes will come only at the moment when augmented and mixed reality technologies become more accessible. Then online video chats will really sparkle with new colors. But for now we have to wait.
In any case, we recommend that you use a variety of different online dating formats and combine them if you want to make new friends, meet your future soulmate or just have a good time. The world is bigger and more diverse than you think!