1. Virtual Dating Game Apps
2. Free Virtual Dating Apps
3. Virtual Dating Apps For Teens
4. Best Virtual Boyfriend Apps
5. Does Virtual Dating Work

With Tinder, the world’s most popular free dating app, you have millions of other single people at your fingertips and they’re all ready to meet someone like you. Whether you’re straight or in the LGBTQIA community, Tinder’s here to bring you all the sparks. There really is something for everyone on Tinder. Want to get into a relationship? A new generation of match dating, MatchDate is a virtual dating & online speed dating app that enables you multiple speed dates in 1 rsvp dating event organized by our expert dating event hosts. We simplified the speed dating process for the virtual age with this easy-to-use app and enabled you to find meaningful connections that match YOU. Unfortunately in my experience OkCupid has become a bit of an online dating app ghost town. Hinge finally won me over, becoming my favorite dating app last year.

An online dating application is an online dating service presented through a mobile phone application, often taking advantage of a smartphone's GPS location capabilities, always on-hand presence, and easy access to digital photo galleries and mobile wallets to enhance the traditional nature of online dating.

These apps can simplify and speed the process of sifting through potential dating partners, chatting, flirting, and potentially meeting or becoming romantically involved over traditional online dating services.

The launch of Tinder in 2012 led to a growth of online dating applications, both by new providers and by traditional online dating services that expanded into the mobile app market.

Origins[edit]

Tinder was the application that led the surge in mobile dating applications.^[1] Tinder was released in September 12, 2012 by founders Sean Ra, Jonathan Badeen, Justin Mateen, Joe Munoz, Dinesh Moorjani, Chris Gylczynski, and Whitney Wolfe. Although, other sources state that the founders are Mateen, Rad, and Badeen only.^[2]

Usage by demographic group[edit]

Online dating applications target a young demographic group. Whereas before, people had very little exposure to online dating, today almost 50% of people know of someone who use the services or has met their loved one through the service.^[3] After the iPhone launch in 2007, online dating data has only increased as application usage increased. In 2005, only 10% of 18-24 year olds reported to have used online dating services; this number increased to over 27% of this population.^[4] Making this target demographic the largest number of users for most applications. When Pew Research Center conducted a study in 2016, they found that 59% of U.S. adults agreed that online dating is a good way to meet people compared to 44% in 2005. This increase in usage by this target group can be justified by their increased use of smartphones which lead them to use these smartphone dating apps. About 1 in 5 18-24-year-old (22%)^[3] reported using dating applications in 2016, whereas only 5% did so in 2003.^[4]

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Morning Consult found through its polling that more Americans were using online dating apps than ever before. In one survey in April 2020, the company found that 53% of U.S. adults who use online dating apps have been using them more during the pandemic.^[5] As of February 2021, that share increased to 71 percent.^[6]

Tinder[edit]

Tinder is a dating application that enables users to quickly browse through photographs of other users within a defined proximity. Tinder is known for its unique swiping mechanism. When the user comes across someone they are interested in, they swipe right. If the user is not interested in someone, they swipe left. If two users mutually swipe right on each other it's called a 'match' and a chat can be initiated between them. This basic mechanism has since been used in other dating apps, including Bumble.^[7]

Other popular applications[edit]

After Tinder's success, many others tried creating their own dating applications and dating websites such as Match.Com created applications for convenience. ARC from Applause,^[8] a research group on app economy, conducted a research study in 2016 on how 1.5 million U.S. consumers rated 97 of the most popular dating apps. The research results indicated that only 11 apps scored 50 or greater (out of 100) with more than 10,000 reviews from the app store. These include: Jaumo, OKCupid, happn, SCRUFF by Perry Street, Moco by JNJ Mobile, GROWL by Initech, Skout, Qeep by Blue Lion mobile, MeetMe, Badoo, and Hornet. An app with a 50+ score was considered successful. Other popular applications like Bumble, Grindr, eHarmony and Match scored 40 or less.^[8] To ensure privacy for celebrities, Raya emerged as a membership-based dating app, allowing entrance only through referrals.^[9] In 2019 - Taimi that started out as an alternative to Grindr launched a first LGBTQI+ inclusive dating app.^[10] The ability to identify individuals with similar interests has given rise to a number of popular religious dating apps including the likes of Muzmatch (Muslim), Salams (Muslim), Upward (Christian), Christian Connection (Christian), JSwipe (Jewish) and JDate (Jewish).^[11][12][13]

Effects on dating[edit]

The usage of online dating applications can have both advantages and disadvantages:

Advantages[edit]

Many of the applications provide personality tests for matching or use algorithms to match users.^[14] These factors enhance the possibility of users getting matched with a compatible candidate. Users are in control; they are provided with many options so there are enough matches that fit their particular type. Users can simply choose to not match the candidates that they know they are not interested in. Narrowing down options is easy. Once users think they are interested, they are able to chat and get to know the potential candidate. This type of communication saves the time, money, and risk users would not avoid if they were dating the traditional way.^[15] Online dating offers convenience; people want dating to work around their schedules. Online dating can also increase self-confidence; even if users get rejected, they know there are hundreds of other candidates that will want to match with them so they can simply move on to the next option.^[16] In fact, 60% of U.S. adults agree that online dating is a good way to meet people and 66% say they have gone on a real date with someone they met through an application. Today, 5% of married Americans or Americans in serious relationships said they met their significant other online.^[4]

Disadvantages[edit]

Sometimes having too many options can be overwhelming. With so many options available, users can get lost in their choices and end up spending too much time looking for the 'perfect' candidate instead of using that time to start a real relationship.^[15] In addition, the algorithms and matching systems put in place may not always be as accurate as users think. There is no perfect system that can match two people’s personalities perfectly every time.^[17]

Communication online also lacks the physical chemistry aspect that is essential for choosing a potential partner. Much is lost in translation through texting. Online dating has made dating very superficial; the picture on users’ profile may cause someone to match or not match before even getting to know their personalities.^[18]

After analysing a significant number of diverse mobile dating applications, researchers have concluded that most of the major dating applications are vulnerable to simple sniffing attacks, which could reveal very sensitive personal information such as sexual orientation, preferences, e-mails, degree of interaction between users, etc.^[19]

Furthermore, online dating platforms are also becoming breeding grounds for honeypots wherein attackers create fake profiles to steal user's private information, one such work studies and evaluates user's vulnerabilities of disclosing personally identifiable information (PII) in Tinder, a mobile dating app.^[20]

An issue amplified by dating apps is a phenomenon known as 'ghosting', whereby one party in a relationship cuts off all communication with the other party without warning or explanation. Ghosting poses a serious problem for dating apps as it can lead to users deleting the apps. For this reason companies like Bumble and Badoo are cracking down on the practice with new features that make it easier for users to end chat conversations more politely.^[21]

Online dating is stigmatized,^[22] but it is becoming more accepted over time.

Data privacy[edit]

Dating apps and online dating sites are often involved in cases concerning the misuse of data. In 2018 Grindr, the first platform for gay dating, is accused to have shared data about the HIV status of its users with numerous companies.^[23] Grindr recognized the allegations^[24] but claim that It was in order to optimize its platform which doesn’t convince the LGBT community. Grindr defend itself by sharing the Data Loss Prevention of the company and reassure the users with the public intervention of its CTO Scott Chen. In Europe dating platform care more and more about data legislation because of the GDPR sanctions that threatens companies of economic sanctions.

Other personal data are sold by dating apps. The one that is the most bought by private companies remains the geographical information of users. When the user allow localization, apps record them and store them using Geographic Coordinate System. When a data breach happens, geographical information directly exposes users.

As others applications, dating apps can have breaches: hackers have revealed security issues on Tinder,^[25]Coffee Meets Bagel^[26] or Adult FriendFinder for instance. On the last one, the data of more than 412 million users was exposed, one of the largest leak in terms of the number of accounts exposed.^[27] In 2016, the sharing of personal information from almost 40 million users of Ashley Madison by a group of Hackers, the 'Impact Team', revealed their real name, phone number, email address, geographical position and sexual preferences.^[28] Ashley Madison assured their more than 35 million users that the service was totally 'anonymous' and '100% discrete' but they didn't delete completely accounts when users chose to (and paid for that) or recognize that data had actually leaked in a first time. Some suicides have been reported after the leak.^[29]Taimi introduced bank-level security to become the 'safest dating app' for gay people to date. ^[30]

Virtual Dating Game Apps

See also[edit]

References[edit]

1. ^Wood, Molly (2015-02-04). 'Led by Tinder, a Surge in Mobile Dating Apps'. The New York Times. ISSN0362-4331. Retrieved 2016-10-26.
2. ^Witt, Emily (2014-02-11). 'How the Tinder App Became a Success'. GQ. Retrieved 2016-10-26.
3. ^ ^ab'Online dating usage by demographic group'. Pew Research Center: Internet, Science & Tech. 2016-02-10. Retrieved 2016-10-26.
4. ^ ^abc'5 facts about online dating'. Pew Research Center. 2016-02-29. Retrieved 2016-10-26.
5. ^'Online Dating Use Rises Amid Coronavirus Pandemic'. Morning Consult. 2020-04-27. Retrieved 2021-02-18.
6. ^'Spurred On by COVID-19, Millennials Lead the Way in Destigmatizing Online Dating - Morning Consult Amid Pandemic, Millennials Lead the Way in Destigmatizing Online Dating'. Morning Consult. 2021-02-11. Retrieved 2021-02-18.
7. ^'Tinder: The Online Dating App Everyone's Talking About'. Marie Claire. 2016-09-22. Retrieved 2016-10-26.
8. ^ ^ab'The Best And Worst Dating Apps For 2016'. ARC. 2016-02-10. Archived from the original on 2016-03-20. Retrieved 2016-10-26.
9. ^Roose, Kevin (27 June 2018). 'Can 'Illuminati Tinder' Save Us All?'. The New York Times. Retrieved 12 June 2019.
10. ^Q. N. Editor (2019-08-13). 'TAIMI BECOMES THE FIRST LGBTQI+ INCLUSIVE SOCIAL AND DATING NETWORK IN THE U.K.'Queer News. Retrieved 2019-09-19.
11. ^Russell, Katie (2017-08-11). 'The 20 best dating sites and apps'. The Telegraph. ISSN0307-1235. Retrieved 2021-03-05.
12. ^Orenstein, Hannah; Lopez, Veronica (March 30, 2021). 'This Couple Met On Upward & Credit Their Faith For Keeping Their Love Strong'. Elite Daily.
13. ^Kessler, Linda (February 2, 2021). 'Looking for love? Technology can help'. The Dallas Morning News.
14. ^'Free Online Dating OkCupid'. OkCupid Free Online Dating. Retrieved 2016-10-26.
15. ^ ^ab'Pros and Cons of Online Dating'. Psychology Today. Retrieved 2016-10-26.
16. ^'How Technology is Changing Dating - PsychAlive'. www.psychalive.org. Retrieved 2016-10-26.
17. ^Dewey, Caitlin (2015-11-11). 'The one thing about 'matching' algorithms that dating sites don't want you to know'. The Washington Post. ISSN0190-8286. Retrieved 2016-10-26.
18. ^Expert, Mara Opperman Relationship Etiquette; IDoNowIDont.com, Co-Founder of; GATTO, Director of Communications at DEL (2015-02-20). 'The Superficiality of Online Dating Apps'. The Huffington Post. Retrieved 2016-10-26.
19. ^Patsakis, Constantinos; Zigomitros, Athanasios; Solanas, Agusti (15 June 2015). Analysis of privacy and security exposure in mobile dating applications. International Conference on Mobile, Secure and Programmable Networking. Paris. pp. 151–162. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-25744-0_13.
20. ^Nandawani, Mona; Kaushal, Rishabh (5 July 2017). Evaluating User Vulnerability to Privacy Disclosures over Online Dating Platforms. International Conference on Innovative Mobile and Internet Services in Ubiquitous Computing. Italy. pp. 342–353. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-61542-4_32.
21. ^Horton, Helena (2018-10-29). 'Dating apps crack down on 'ghosting', as 'epidemic' of ignoring partners puts off users'. The Telegraph. ISSN0307-1235. Retrieved 2020-03-18.
22. ^https://search.proquest.com/openview/9d2ea980a396752eb0e53d7171a521ff/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=18750&diss=y
23. ^Moylan, Brian (2018-04-04). 'Grindr was a safe space for gay men. Its HIV status leak betrayed us Brian Moylan'. The Guardian. ISSN0261-3077. Retrieved 2019-04-01.
24. ^Kimball, Spencer (2018-04-02). 'Grindr defends sharing user HIV status with other companies'. www.cnbc.com. Retrieved 2019-04-01.
25. ^'Millions of Tinder users may be affected by new security breach'. JOE.ie. Retrieved 2019-04-01.
26. ^Donie O'Sullivan; Sara O'Brien. 'Dating app reveals data breach on Valentine's Day'. CNN. Retrieved 2019-04-01.
27. ^Peterson, Andrea (2016-11-14). 'Adult FriendFinder hit with one of the biggest data breaches ever, report says'. The Washington Post. Retrieved 2019-04-02.
28. ^Brandom, Russell (2015-08-19). 'Find out if your email is part of the Ashley Madison hack'. The Verge. Retrieved 2019-04-01.
29. ^Lamont, Tom (2016-02-28). 'Life after the Ashley Madison affair'. The Observer. ISSN0029-7712. Retrieved 2019-04-01.
30. ^'New gay dating app has 'bank-level' security for those afraid to be outed'. Gay Star News. 2018-05-04. Retrieved 2019-09-19.

Virtual reality brings a whole new facet to socialising, meeting people, and even dating online. Social media is undoubtedly the most significant success of the internet.

After all, who do you know that isn’t on Facebook? Your social life contains a considerable proportion of online activity, so why not virtual reality dating?

So how does virtual reality dating work? And is it already available?

Let’s have a look.

The Rise of Online Dating

Remember the first social platforms? Friends Reunited? And Facebook!? From here “connecting” with friends old and new proliferated online.

Dating websites launched, like Match.com in 1995 and then, dating apps like Tinder in 2012. Though fraught with controversy dating apps are used by many.

And, not just by the kind of lonely heart brave enough to post a classified advert in the local newspaper (go back a decade or two here).

Dating apps and platforms are standard nowadays, accepted ways to find and meet your soulmate. You just have to remember that care should be taken, not everyone is honest in their online profiles, and there are dangers of meeting a stranger in person, who you met online.

If you haven’t tried online dating, read up on the dangers, there are some horrifying stories out there. Some people have committed to complete relationships online, only to find their new “partner” is not who they expected.

There are also many funny stories and many, many happy marriages and relationships have grown from meeting a new friend online, or online on dating websites or applications.

Apparently, 53% of people lie on their dating profile, and 22% get their friends to create their profiles!

Warnings Over, Let’s Look at The Success of Online Dating

From 1995, Match.com is taking the credit for the conception of more than one million babies and nearly 100,000 marriages. The same company actually owns Match.com as Tinder.

Founded in 2012 Tinder has had 11 billion matches – though this is not the figure for successful relationships!

27% of young Americans use dating websites, and 40% of all Americans. In the figures, we found for America around 20% of those in the current, committed relationships, found love online.

Has Virtual Reality Dating Already Arrived?

There are forecasted to be 171 million virtual reality users by 2018, an increase from 4.1 million in 2015; there is no denying the sector is proliferating, and along with it, the types of application and content.

Virtual Reality Social Networking

So, Facebook is not in virtual reality yet, as Facebook. But, they do own Oculus Rift and along with that Oculus Rooms. They launched Facebook Spaces in April 2017 and bought AltSpace just last month.

Free Virtual Dating Apps

In virtual reality, you can create an avatar, and instead of meeting as an icon, username or flat photograph, you can meet in fully immersive virtual spaces, rooms or locations.

Your avatar can have the same amount of individual activity, freedom and expressiveness as in the real world. You can handshake, fist-bump and bar hop!

With apps like vTime, you can meet people, on trains, around campfires and even sit in a satellite orbiting the earth. In AltSpace lots of people can interact in one room, also watch comedy shows together.

Due to the level of interactivity virtual reality apps create, and the lack of real-world rules, there have been reports of harassment.

Any good app should include ways to report lousy behaviour from users. People still need personal space and of course respect, and own safety, even in virtual reality.

Virtually Dating

Condé Nast Entertainment and Facebook just launched a show on Facebook Watch called “Virtually Dating”.

The show sets people up on blind dates in virtual worlds including space, a zombie world and ancient Egypt. At the end of the date, couples are asked if they want to meet again in the real world.

Virtual Reality Dating Apps

The League

Elitist dating app The League, which takes profile information from LinkedIn, not Facebook like other apps, and individually vets signups so only the approved ones get through, is reportedly developing a virtual reality version. Though there is no sign of launch yet.

FlirtAR – Augmented Reality “Matching”

FlirtAR is a mobile app which uses augmented reality to match you to other singletons. It uses facial recognition to help you find other users nearby, and match your profiles.

“FlirtAR will use facial recognition, geolocation, and augmented reality to show user dating profiles and begin conversations with potential dates in the real world and in real time”

– Renan Godinho, founder of FlirtAR

On the more amusing side of virtual reality dating…

Dating Lessons

For the HTC Vive, Oculus Rift and Gear VR, not a dating app, but one that offers immersive dating lessons!

Developed by Cerevrum Inc and already criticised for being sexist. The app is targeted at men to help them date women, including how to approach women and what to say on a date.

Dating a Virtual Character?

Yes, it’s possible. A Japanese app Ruptlyallows men to marry their favourite anime character, with witnesses and a “real” kiss.

The app concept is based on the anime video game ‘Niitzuma Lovely x Cation’ where users can have a relationship with a virtual girlfriend.

Tinder virtual reality headset for two!

Adding some humour to virtual reality dating, Tinder unveiled a “virtual reality” dating headset at the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) early this year for:

“singletons who want to get connected in the real world. Tinder VR (LOL)” turned out to be a tube where daters could stare at each other through the “headset.”

Virtual Reality Dating – Can You Try It Today?

Virtual Dating Apps For Teens

While we are not seeing any real credible, dedicated virtual reality dating applications on the market right now, it’s sure there will be some soon.

For the moment, if you want to start virtual reality dating, you’re going to have to look for singletons on the virtual reality social platforms that are out there.

Best Virtual Boyfriend Apps

As with any dating, concentrate on making friends and meeting people and let natural opportunities for “something more” to develop.

Remember that virtual reality feels very much like real life, so apply the same rules and expect the same standards to be used.

Does Virtual Dating Work

And if you’re not ready for virtual reality dating yet, read about other uses of virtual reality in entertainment industry.