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Soon you won’t have to leave Tinder to go on a virtual date with your parties. Match Group, the parent company of the dating app, said it is developing a one-to-one video chat feature for Tinder. “We know that singles are adjusting their behaviors, and many are switching to practically dating over the phone or video,” he wrote in his first-quarter 2020 earnings report.
Match Group said it is accelerating development to build “one-on-one video chat capabilities” on many of its platforms. This probably suggests that in addition to Tinder, the feature will also hit the rest of the startup’s dating apps, like Hinge and OkCupid. While it hasn’t disclosed any details yet, the company said video calls will be rolled out for the first time for Tinder users sometime late in the second quarter.
Earlier last month, Tinder’s sibling dating platform Hinge also got an update that allowed users to tell their partners that they’re ready for a video call date. However, to actually call someone, people still had to turn to another communications app outside of Hinge.
Like many online services, Tinder witnessed notable increases in its engagement numbers. He claims that the average number of daily messages has increased by 27% in the month of April since the last week of February. In addition, he said daily active users and hits “hit record highs.”
However, with requests for home shelter, the company faced a decline in first-time paying users from February to March. It’s worth noting that Tinder made one of its premium benefits called Passport free for everyone, allowing users to swipe to any location of their choice rather than just their locality.
Virtual dates have been on the rise lately as people find it increasingly difficult to find themselves in person in the midst of a pandemic. Tinder, the most popular dating app, is likely looking to capitalize on the trend with its one-on-one video chat feature.
Tinder is also not the first dating app to add video calls. Several of its competitors have offered the option for a while now. Bumble, based in Austin, Texas, introduced video and voice calls to the app about a year ago. Facebook also plans to integrate Messenger’s video calling feature directly into its dating platform.
