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Online matchmaking apps are seeking to push users off screens and towards getting to know each other in person in their latest effort to address concerns about “dating fatigue” among Gen Z users.
Dating giant Tinder has followed the lead of new apps such as Doubble and Fourplay to offer a “double dates” feature, where matched people each bring a friend to the meet up.
Meanwhile Breeze, an app where users do not chat over text but simply arrange a time and place for a date, has seen its monthly active users double to more than 200,000 in the past 12 months.
The moves come as the world’s biggest dating apps, such as Hinge-owner Match Group, Bumble and Grindr, launch initiatives targeting younger users in a bid to reverse a post-pandemic slowdown in growth.
“Gen Z is redefining what it means to date,” Spencer Rascoff, chief executive of Match Group, told the Financial Times. “Whether it’s helping friends date together or introducing smarter safety features, we’re focused on creating more authentic, low-pressure ways to connect.”
The effort has led to dating companies launching new platonic friend-finding products, improved safeguarding measures as well as building AI chatbot assistants to help generate icebreakers and improve interactions.
There are signs that these changes are helping to boost the number of Gen Z users on dating apps. People aged 18-24 now form 21 per cent of Tinder’s users, up from 17 per cent three years ago, according to market insight firm Sensor Tower. Hinge’s users in that age group has risen from 14 per cent to 17 per cent.
AJ Balance, chief product officer at gay dating app, Grindr, which has more than 12mn monthly users, said that Gen Z users wanted “personalisation, safety and authenticity”.
Grindr is planning to fully roll out of its AI “wingman” tool by 2027, which uses technology to assess the suitability of users before they interact based on previous conversations.
Tinder’s new double date feature, launched last month, is already popular with younger users — with 90 per cent of those using it aged under 29, according to the company.
Rascoff, who has made courting younger users a key part of its strategy since he took the reins at the industry’s largest operator in March, said the company was making “bold product bets” to connect with the generation.
At Hinge, the app has sought to “de-gamify” its offering by forcing daters to undergo more steps — known as “turn limits” — before deciding whether to swipe left or right. The change, introduced last year, has improved chat responsiveness by 20 per cent, according to the company.
Some of these features have helped Hinge’s monthly users jump from 9.5mn in 2023 to more than 11mn in 2025. Gen Z users grew 17 per cent over the same period, to roughly 56 per cent of its total audience.
Younger users have previously warned in surveys that they have grown tired of using dating apps for their perceived tendency to draw people seeking short-term flings over longer-term connections. Some women have reported concerns about receiving unsolicited material and violent threats while using the services.
Shares in Match and Bumble have plummeted by more than 80 per cent since their 2021-highs, while the industry’s most popular apps — also including Badoo — have endured a drop in monthly user numbers,
Earlier this month, Bumble chief Whitney Wolfe Herd told employees she was “worried” the company may not exist next year if cost cuts were not taken to safeguard the business. She warned that dating apps were “feeling like a thing of the past”.
Also in July, Breeze announced users would have the ability to filter their searches by dating intention, drinking and smoking habits, and if users wanted children.
“The typical [Breeze] user is someone who is done with dating apps,” said Breeze co-founder Marco van der Woude. “Tired of swiping and tired of chatting.”
Data visualisation by Amy Borrett
