Over the past few years, we’ve grown used to the throngs of dating apps that are available on the internet. People aren’t quite as wary of using dating apps as they were a few years ago, and the popularity of these online ways of meeting a romantic partner have skyrocketed in the past decade.
During a survey conducted in April 2017, Statista found that 30% of internet users in the US between the ages of 18 and 29 years were currently using dating apps, while an additional 31% stated that they had done so in the past. Never before have there been so many options for people who are looking for love, and recently, the world’s most popular social media platform has decided to get in on the action.
The CEO of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, announced that the social media giant would foray into the dating scene during the company’s annual F8 developer conference in San Jose, California, held on 1 May 2018. Given that 200 million of Facebook’s 2 billion users list themselves as “single” in their profiles, “there’s clearly something to do here,” said Zuckerberg.
How it will work
Dating on Facebook will match users with people they are not already friends with. This will be done by matching them with people that are attending social events and groups that they attend or share an interest with, based on dating preferences set up on a profile that is not visible to other users.
Their profile will also be shared with other users attending the same event, and the matching process, just like on many other dating apps, is based on mutual interest from both parties.
At present, conversations with matches will be restricted to text – Facebook states this is for safety purposes – and will be conducted in a chat thread that is separate from Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp.
When Zuckerberg made the announcement, he placed great emphasis on the fact that Facebook’s new dating feature aims to build real, long-term relationships with its novel, real-life approach to online dating, and the inclusion of actual events as a significant part of the process.
Facebook is yet to announce release dates for the new dating feature, which will follow a testing phase, but keep an eye on Smartcom’s blog for the latest developments.
Have you used dating apps before, and are you excited about Facebook’s announcement? Tell us in the comments below.