What will online dating be like in 2030?

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In our Love App-tually series, Mashable shines a light into the foggy world of online dating. It is cuffing season after all.


Digital courtship exploded with the rise of the smartphone. 

Match and eHarmony laid the online groundwork decades ago, but momentum built after the first iPhone was released in 2007: Grindr was founded two years later, Tinder in 2012, and Bumble in 2014. 

These apps, bolstered by location-tracking, swiping, and almighty algorithms, brought the masses to online dating. But as we look to the future, online dating companies have a new problem to tackle.

“I feel like we’ve solved the volume problem,” said Hesam Hosseini, CEO of online dating behemoth Match (Tinder, Hinge, OkCupid, and Plenty of Fish are all owned by Match). “How do you solve the quality part of that volume equation? If we’re going on a lot of dates, great, but are we really on a better path to finding a partner?” Read more…

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12 people explain their dating app allegiances

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In our Love App-tually series, Mashable shines a light into the foggy world of online dating. Just in time for cuffing season.


On dating apps, people’s intentions and objectives vary wildly, which is partially why they’re a breeding ground for disappointment. But sometimes — and yes, this has happened — someone uses a dating app and thinks, “Wow, that was not so bad.”

We asked 12 people to explain why they love (or at least tolerate) their favorite dating app. Spoiler: Despite the corny questions, a surprising number of people love Hinge. The interviews below have been edited and condensed for clarity. Read more…

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Online dating isn’t a game. It’s literally changing humanity.

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In our Love App-tually series, Mashable shines a light into the foggy world of online dating. After all, it’s still cuffing season.


The swipe is about as casual a gesture as it gets. 

On Tinder, Bumble and every copycat dating app, choices are made in the blink of an eye. You’re not  making definitive decisions about this stream full of faces; it’s more a question “could this person be hot if we match, if they have something interesting to say, if they’re not a creep and we’re a few drinks in?” 

You feel so far removed from the process of dating at this stage, let alone a relationship, that swiping is simply a game. (Indeed, the makers of the mobile medieval royalty RPG Reigns intended its simple left-right controls as a Tinder homage.) You’re like Matthew Broderick at the start of the 1983 movie War Games — enamored with technology’s possibilities, gleefully playing around.  Read more…

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A very efficient guide to not wasting your time while online dating

In our Love App-tually series, Mashable shines a light into the foggy world of online dating. Just in time for cuffing season.

Let’s be real: Ain’t nobody got time to waste on online dating. Yet for busy single people, dating apps and websites feel …

View More A very efficient guide to not wasting your time while online dating