Technology
Facebook is the new Tinder: It is developing dating features
Facebook is developing dating features to allow users to meet non-friends on the social network, CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced during the company's F8 developers conference in San Jose, California. The feature will be opt-in and your dating profile on Facebook will only be visible to people who are not in your friend list. The feature will be tested later this year.
Here's how Facebook dating will work
You'll create a dating profile with just your first name, which won't be visible to friends, to people who haven't opted-in for the feature, and won't show up in the News Feed. The profiles will contain a few photos and some basic information. If two people are interested in each other, they'll be able to start a conversation in an inbox that's not Messenger.
Discover others with similar interests through Groups and Events
With a community-focused take on dating, Facebook will have an "unlock" feature that will allow users to make their dating profiles visible to people who are attending the same events or are members of the same group. It's just another way of coming across people who match your interests. Other people also need to have unlocked their profiles for them to see yours.
Competition
Given Facebook's reach, the introduction of dating app-like features will obviously affect actual dating apps like Tinder and Bumble. In fact, Tinder's parent company Match Group's shares fell 17% after Facebook announced the upcoming feature. Match Group also owns and operates popular dating platform OkCupid.
Facebook will match you by a slew of preferences
Facebook will recommend potential matches based on things in common, mutual friends, dating preferences, and other data it has on you, which will help it deliver more relevant matches. "This is going to be for building real, long-term relationships—not just for hookups. We have designed this with privacy and safety in mind from the beginning," Zuckerberg said.
