How Dating Apps are Incorporating Audio and Video
The world has changed in the wake of COVID-19, and the world of dating apps is certainly no different. But while many of the global changes brought on by the pandemic have been mostly negative, the impact on the world of app-based hookups and relationships may end up being a net positive. Why? Because it’s forced long-standing apps like Tinder to shake up their approach, and it’s opened the door for new upstarts to make names for themselves.
One of the ways that these apps are shaking up the dating game is by incorporating audio, video, and other multimedia to transform from mindless swiping to a truly date-like experience— even from right within the app.
Bumble, for example, has recently launched an app-based trivia game called Night In. If you match with someone on the app, you still have the option to immediately set up an in-person meeting. Or, you can start with a virtual trivia date that includes voice memos— a feature you might have seen popping up on viral videos across TikTok and other social media over the last few months.
Meanwhile, Tinder has introduced what they’re calling Swipe Night, a feature that is something like a murder mystery game night. Matches follow clues across a storyline to find out who committed a crime over the course of several ‘episodes.’
If the two players enjoy their experience, they can match with each other and move to an in-person date.
Don’t expect these apps to do away with swiping altogether, but it seems that finding new and innovative ways to enhance the online and app-based dating experience was always in the cards— even before the COVID-19 pandemic struck.
Tinder’s former CEO made waves when he controversially confused sapiosexuality with an offensive term, sodomy. However, at the time, Tinder and Rad had parted ways and Rad was not speaking for the company when he gave that interview. That interview also spoke of a supermodel who apparently wanted to sleep with Rad. Rad claimed that he preferred women who others might deem “ugly.” I wonder what the women he was dating at the time of that comment thought of his “ugly” assessment.
