Soon you won’t have to leave Tinder to go on a virtual date with your matches. Match Group, the dating app’s parent company, said it’s developing a one-on-one video chatting feature. “We know that singles are adjusting their behaviors, and many are shifting to having dates virtually via phone or video,” it wrote in its first-quarter earnings release.
Match Group said it’s accelerating development for building “one-to-one video chat capabilities” on many of its platforms. This likely hints that, in addition to Tinder, the feature will arrive on the rest of the startup’s dating apps as well, including Hinge and OkCupid. While it didn’t reveal any specifics just yet, the company did say video calls will be first rolled out for Tinder users sometime in “late Q2.”
Earlier last month, Tinder’s sibling dating platform, Hinge also gained an update which allowed users to tell their matches that they’re ready for a video call date. However, to actually call someone, people still had to turn to other communications app outside of Hinge.
Like many online services, Tinder witnessed remarkable upswings in its engagement figures. It claims the average number of daily messages has climbed by 27% in the month of April since the last week of February. Plus, it said daily active users and swipes “reached all-time highs.”
However, with shelter-at-home orders in place, the company did face a decline in first-time paying users from February to March. It’s worth noting that Tinder made one of its premium perks called Passport free for everyone that lets users swipe in any location of their choice instead of just their locality.
Virtual dates have been on the rise lately as people find it increasingly difficult to meet up in person amidst a pandemic. Tinder, the most popular dating app, is likely seeking to capitalize on the trend with its one-on-one video chat feature.
Tinder isn’t the first dating app to add video calls either. Several of its competitors have offered the option for a while now. Austin, Texas-based, Bumble introduced in-app video and voice calls about a year ago. Facebook is also planning to integrate Messenger’s video-calling feature directly on its dating platform.
