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Image: Meta
AI is not ready to hang up its Cupid’s arrow just yet.
Facebook Dating is the latest dating app to present AI-based features as the answer to “swipe fatigue,” Meta announced this week.
The new features include a “dating assistant” AI chatbot that allows users to find compatible matches, as well as a “Meet Cute” feature that automatically pairs them with an algorithmically matched profile once a week, all without users having to swipe a finger.
Rather than searching through endless profiles, users can type out exactly what they are looking for in a romantic partner, and the assistant will recommend compatible matches.
“The assistant allows users to go beyond traditional traits like height or education,” a Meta spokesperson told Fast Company. For example, if a user typed out the prompt: “find me a finance bro who loves puppies and long walks on the beach,” in theory, the assistant would pull up a match based on publicly available information drawn from their profile.
The AI assistant can also be prompted for dating advice, including effective pickup lines or romantic first date ideas, and will be available in the Matches tab, continuing to roll out “gradually” across the U.S. and Canada, Meta says.
According to a recent study, just over a quarter of singles are already using AI wingmen to enhance their dating lives, up 333% from 2024.
Facebook Dating’s move away from the traditional dating app model lands amid a time of “swipe fatigue” and “dating app burnout.”
In 2024, 78% of dating app users reportedly feel “emotionally, mentally, or physically exhausted” from the apps, according to one Forbes Health survey. Many are instead turning to curated and vetted services and personalised matchmakers.
While Facebook Dating may not be the first dating app that comes to mind, it has answered the call.
Facebook said that matches among young adults are up 10% year over year, and that hundreds of thousands of young adults in the U.S. and Canada create accounts each month.
Compared to competitors like Tinder, which has about 50 million daily active users, and Hinge’s 10 million daily active users, it’s a drop in the bucket. But as the influx of singles-run clubs and resurgence of speed-dating has shown, hopeless romantics will try anything once.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Eve Upton-Clark is a writer at Fast Company who focuses on internet culture and trends, covering everything from politics to pop culture.. She has been a freelance features writer since 2020 and is a regular contributor to Business Insider, Telegraph, Dazed, and more.