Are Dating Apps The Future of Communication?

From OK Cupid to Tinder and then Bumble to name just a few, dating websites and apps have come a long way over the past two decades. From working with an older generation who were looking for true love online, to the mainly younger generation who wanted no-strings-attached meetups, dating platforms can give a great insight into current trends not only in relationships between people, but also between businesses and consumers. Older generations tend to be more loyal to brands, while the younger generation isn’t afraid to shop until they find something that suits them for the meantime.

The recent valuation of Bumble in their IPO shows how seriously these businesses should be taken. No longer are they just about connecting people on a romantic level, but they should be looked at as a social tool, especially when you consider options they provide such as Bumble Bizz to help connect like-minded business people. Platforms such as Facebook and Linkedin should be taking this market segment seriously.

Current dating apps work in a way where attention is at a premium; if you thought users on Facebook spent little time reading a post, you should see how quickly Tinder and Bumble users swipe through potential matches. What you see is what you get is the name of the game and this has driven innovation in drawing and maintaining attention; not very easy in this day and age. Communication at first is very shallow in order to weed out potential partners, and this is something that many businesses have been doing, but in less of a blunt way, i.e targeted advertising.

While platforms such as Facebook and Linkedin have been built around communication, they aren’t places where people often feel comfortable reaching out to strangers, possibly because there is so much personal data on show. Dating apps allow you to reach out to strangers with much less repercussions than if you approached someone on Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, or even on the street.

I would not be surprised to see within the next few years, job candidates being chosen in the same style as you would choose a date currently. View a profile, swipe right if you like the candidate, left if you don’t, talk for a bit and then use a booking meeting option if you want a formal interview. This is all very possible based on how social media as a whole is developing and the different areas it can branch out into.

If you ask me, dating apps are just one of the factors that will affect our future ways of communicating. As with all innovation, we pick and choose the best/most relevant parts of things and try to merge them to create something better. Are they the future of communication? Probably not, if anything they are the current. But will they have an impact on our future? Certainly.