advertisement
I believe the whole premise of a dating app is meeting people in person. The formalities of initiating the conversation and picking a place are just means to move the conversation to a coffee table.
What else would you use a dating app for?
The lockdown phase globally and in India seems to be giving dating apps a new definition. It’s obvious that you cannot meet anyone through dating apps at this time but surprisingly people have still been swiping sporadically.
So why are they still using dating apps if there’s very little chance of them meeting someone outside of the digital space?
The consensus among many users on dating apps seems to be that they’re bored. And it’s obvious. Social-distancing has forced people to stay indoors which has led people to figure ways of finding new people to talk to.
There’s only so much you can talk to with friends. Therefore, the citizens of online dating apps have figured that dating apps are their best chance of killing boredom.
We spoke to Prateek who works in a Noida-based media company and he said that he observed a growth in the number of matches he got during this phase.
Aarti who is a freelancer based out of Mumbai isn’t an active user on these apps yet finds time to go online during the lockdown. Though her priorities are different.
The lockdown period has been a boom time for most of the dating apps. Not only have the number of dating app downloads increased but the conversations on these apps have grown by folds.
I really don’t know whether isolation makes one a good conversationalist but Tinder’s numbers seem to suggest that.
Speaking to a Bumble spokesperson we also learned that there had been a spike over the past two weeks in adoption amongst millennials.
Dating apps are playing their part in making sure they advocate the message of social distancing among their users.
Most of the communication has been via in-app notifications where apps are telling users to find new ways of staying in touch.
It’s great that Tinder is offering this feature which according to the company has seen a 25 percent growth in India. However, it does have a catch. To access unlimited swipes and other features you have to pay.
Prateek who is an engineer based out of Delhi says that despite having access to the Passport feature he still gets limited swipes in the area which defeats the entire purpose of exploring new locations.
Bumble and Hinge aren’t offering any promotional feature but are pushing ways to keep the spark going by moving to video and voice calls. While Hinge doesn’t have a video call feature Bumble added it in 2019.
Ravi who is a Bumble user from Delhi feels that this period is just another way for dating apps to push their paid features by tempting users with limited period free trials.
Even Grinder a dating app for the LGBTQ community is offering a 7-day free trial period and access to some paid features in multiple locations as a promotional offer. All of this with a social message to stay inside.
There are different schools of thought on whether being on dating apps right now is helpful in any way.
Priya from Indore who is a journalist doesn’t buy the idea of dating apps during the lockdown period.
Yes, there are some users who are finding meaningful conversations and are laying the groundwork to possibly meet after the lockdown but a majority of the users are using these dating apps as boredom busters or just to kill time.
(The names have been changed in the story due to privacy concerns)
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)