Youngbunthom, a 29-year-old teacher and musician from Richmond, Virginia, didn’t know much about Facebook dating before creating the profile in 2023. Still, they match like Got it. “I think being on Facebook is just like having a mom,” he says of the perception of the social network. Youngbentham couldn’t understand why he was interacting with people who lived so far away. “There’s no one close to me, which is interesting because there are so many users on Facebook Dating.”
Twenty one million users in fact. In November, for the first time since its launch in 2019, Meta shared information about Facebook Dating with WIRED users, and the data came with a howl of collective surprise. Suddenly, the platform was a secret hit – and even bigger than its nearest rival, Hinge. What’s even more surprising is that Facebook Dating is slowly growing among young people, with 1.77 million daily active US users aged 18 to 29, a figure that challenges the idea that only boomers use Facebook. According to last year’s Pew survey, 32 percent of teen respondents said they use Facebook compared to 71 percent in 2015, although Facebook Dating says daily interactions among its 18 to 29 demographic will increase by 24 percent in 2024.
Facebook Dating is not like any other dating app on the market. It’s not even technically an app. Like Marketplace or Groups, it’s a service within the Facebook app. It also doesn’t rely on a subscription model like Bumble or Tinder, which is a big advantage when onboarding new users. This is what Olivia Nwokoma, a 24-year-old hospitality worker in Maryland, loves most. “It doesn’t block better features behind a paywall,” she says. Nwokoma, who is always on the lookout for good deals on Facebook Marketplace, prefers men over 6 feet, so when a dating app allows it — and Facebook Dating does — she’ll often filter by height.
AI-based vibe check
What Facebook Dating lacks in efficiency it more than makes up for. Like every other dating app this year, Facebook went full on AI. Unlike every other dating app, it has the most complete dating assistant I’ve ever seen. That is to say, it is very similar to ChatGPT in its speed, efficiency and logic.
Facebook Dating product manager Neha Kumar says the goal is to build functionality that helps you “skip the swipe.” “You can say ‘I want to find someone who also loves going to concerts and is willing to explore the Brooklyn food scene with me,’ and it will find a partner for you.” It also has pre-selected prompts – from “Find me someone who loves baking” to “Show me the top matches in my city.” “We are the first to go to market with a full-fledged assistant that you can chat with, who will give you advice and recommendations throughout your journey,” says Kumar. There will be no paywalls or tiered services, she says, adding that there will be no paywalls or tiered services, “I think people are fed up with their basic human desire to find connection and find love by being monetized.”
During Kumar’s demo on Zoom, she asks the assistant to find someone her mom might like for her, and after a brief fumble, she recommends Dwight, a 39-year-old New York City entrepreneur who “values loyalty and trust” and is a “big foodie.”
“So this is the person the assistant thinks I should bring home to my mother,” says Kumar.
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