Key Takeaways
- Meta is debuting a new AI dating assistant for Facebook Dating to help users search for matches instead of swiping for them.
- The tech giant is also introducing a feature called Meet Cute, which gives them a “surprise match” every week.
- Facebook Dating adds “hundreds of thousands” of users every month, according to Meta.
Meta claims that it is adding new features to Facebook Dating to help users receive more tailored matches.
Meta announced on Monday in a blog post that it is introducing an AI dating assistant chatbot within Facebook Dating to help users search for matches based on specific criteria, including location, profession, and interests. Users can enter prompts based on their preferences, like “Find me a Brooklyn girl in tech,” and the chatbot will assist with the search. Of course, users can still search for more than the traditional traits, such as height and education, Meta wrote in the blog post.
“It can help you find better matches based on your interests and preferences, giving you refined search and custom match recommendations,” the blog post reads.
The AI dating assistant will start “gradually” rolling out in the U.S. and Canada starting this week and will be located on the Matches tab within Facebook Dating.
Meta also introduced another feature to Facebook Dating on Monday called Meet Cute, an option that gives users a weekly “surprise match” selected by Meta’s algorithm. Meet Cute offers the same advantage as the AI dating assistant: Users don’t have to swipe in order to get a match.
“Meet Cute is ideal for anyone who’s tired of swiping and is looking for a fresh, easy way to expand their typical pool of dating candidates,” Meta wrote in the blog post.
What Is Facebook Dating?
Meta introduced Facebook Dating in September 2019, releasing it as a feature within the Facebook mobile app on Android and iOS for existing Facebook members.
Since then, hundreds of thousands of adults in the U.S. and Canada have created Facebook Dating profiles every month, and young adult matches among people ages 18 to 29 are up 10% year-over-year, per Meta’s blog post. It’s unclear how many active users Facebook Dating has.
Competing dating apps have millions of users — Tinder has 50 million monthly active users, while Hinge has 10 million, according to Wired.
Meta isn’t the only company investing in AI for dating. Match Group, which owns Tinder, Hinge, OKCupid, and other dating apps, entered into an agreement with OpenAI last year to bring ChatGPT internally to employees. The AI chatbot has since helped the company’s staff with coding, communications, and design, in addition to other tasks.
The move was part of Match Group’s $20 million investment in AI, which has resulted in features like AI-powered matching on Tinder, released in February, and AI text editing on Hinge, which debuted in January. Despite introducing AI features, Match rival Bumble also released an AI-powered feature last month called Deception Detector, which uses AI to filter out fake, spam, or scam profiles.
Still, the dating tech market isn’t on the up. Match Group’s stock has lost about 65% of its value in the past five years due to declines in paying users, while Bumble has also faced drops in paying users. The company reported last month that for its second quarter, total paying users decreased 8.7% to 3.8 million.
Key Takeaways
- Meta is debuting a new AI dating assistant for Facebook Dating to help users search for matches instead of swiping for them.
- The tech giant is also introducing a feature called Meet Cute, which gives them a “surprise match” every week.
- Facebook Dating adds “hundreds of thousands” of users every month, according to Meta.
Meta claims that it is adding new features to Facebook Dating to help users receive more tailored matches.
Meta announced on Monday in a blog post that it is introducing an AI dating assistant chatbot within Facebook Dating to help users search for matches based on specific criteria, including location, profession, and interests. Users can enter prompts based on their preferences, like “Find me a Brooklyn girl in tech,” and the chatbot will assist with the search. Of course, users can still search for more than the traditional traits, such as height and education, Meta wrote in the blog post.
“It can help you find better matches based on your interests and preferences, giving you refined search and custom match recommendations,” the blog post reads.
