Dating apps are trying to cure swiping fatigue with pickleball, trivia nights, and fewer chats
After years of captivating users with endless swipes, dating apps are now trying to get people to put their phones down and find connection in the real world.
Tinder, the pioneer of the dating swipe, is now one of the companies leading this expansion of IRL events.
In March, the company introduced an Events feature in its app and hosted a pilot event for users in Los Angeles.
Since then, the feature has started to catch on, especially with younger people, said Tinder chief product officer Mark Kantor.
The company since March has seen 71% of its Gen Z users in L.A. visit the Events feature on its app.
Meanwhile, only 63% of users 25 and older engaged with it.
The company has now expanded the feature to 20 cities, mostly in the U.S. but also in Europe.
The idea, Kantor told Fortune via email, is to shed the label of “dating event” and instead allow users to meet potential matches while doing something they already love like pickleball, trivia, or sauna and cold plunge sessions.
The company has partnered with several companies to facilitate these kinds of activities including City Pickle, Joust, and Othership.
“The activity gives people a natural starting point, and the shared experience takes some of the pressure out of meeting someone new,” he said.
Courtesy of Tinder Another established dating app company, Bumble, said it is also helping extend its reach beyond swipes and messages with events and activations.
This year, the company has taken over bars across New York for singles mixers, hosted a rooftop party in Nashville , and held an event with Barstool Sports’ Tommy Smokes in Boston .
“IRL has been part of Bumble’s DNA from the start.
We know that one of the biggest points of friction in dating today is the gap between connecting online and actually meeting in person, and we’re focused on helping close that gap,” a Bumble spokesperson told Fortune in a statement.
5News aggregated this summary from the outlet’s public feed. The full article, with all the context, is on fortune.com — the content belongs to Fortune.