For those of us who’ve been waiting for Facebook to hook us up, well, the time is now. Facebook Dating is now official. The giant social media network that boasts of having over 2.41 billion monthly active users (MAU) as of June 2019 announced news of entering the dating turf last year at their F8 conference that could be worth $12 billion by 2020 and then started testing in various countries including Colombia.
Early today, the company officially launched Dating sending Facebook shares up 2%.
How does it work?
There’s no need to set up a different profile as Facebook Dating will use your current Facebook account but there’s an option to use a different one. Once you sign up, Facebook will suggest to you people already on Dating just like Tinder.
Also, only your first name and age will come with you from your Facebook profile. You then can choose either to use on not use other information, such as your gender identity which won’t be shared with potential matches, who you are interested in, photos and more details such as your height, religion, job title, where you work, school or if you have children.
For now, the gender options available are “cis woman,” “trans woman,” “cis man,” “trans man,” and “non-binary person.” For potential matches, you can select “everyone,” “women,” “men,” “trans women,” or “trans men.”
You can also add your Instagram posts to your Dating profile too. Facebook provides ice-breaker questions to complete your profile.
facebook's new matchmaking service sounds like a dynamite way to increase user engagement by creating as much drama as possible. https://t.co/o2IHYJBRJS pic.twitter.com/gMvZ2ty8nK
— Gavia Baker-Whitelaw (@Hello_Tailor) September 5, 2019
If the experience sucks, you can delete your Dating profile at any time.
However, unlike Tinder, you don’t have to wait to match – you send a message by either responding directly to their questions or click on their photos provided to send a message.
The messages will live in their own separate inbox and only texts are allowed. No links, photos or payments are allowed.
You can also click on the Like button.
You turn down someone, just tap on “Not Interested”. Another feature, the “Second Look” allows users to re-review someone’s profile.
Facebook added safety features including the ability to share details of your date using Messenger or Live Location.
It is worth noting that your activity on Facebook Dating will not appear on your Facebook profile or news feed. You control who on Facebook can see your Dating profile.
Other features include Stories where you can create new ones or use those posted on Facebook Stories or Instagram Stories so as to let you be authentic in a way that a typical dating profile can’t.
Clever of Facebook Dating to lean on Instagram to let people show the pretty side of their lives, and it has data to make smarter matches than tinder. But can it overcome its toxic brand tax?
— Josh Constine 📶🔥 (@JoshConstine) September 5, 2019
Secret Crush is another feature that will allow users to add people in their Facebook friends list or Instagram followers to a list. The people on that list will get a notification that they are someone’s crush.
so i still think fb dating's "secret crush" feature is a total growth hack that makes me feel icky, BUT the company is going to let people pick their crushes from not only their fb friends but ALSO their insta followers. this is actually… game changing?
— Ashley Carman (@ashleyrcarman) September 5, 2019
Our popular Secret Crush feature gives you the option to do just that. If you choose to use Secret Crush, you can select up to nine of your Facebook friends or Instagram followers who you’re interested in.
Facebook dating: for those who think "yeah I like dating, but I wish my uncle was more involved"
— Fart to Table (@lizscher) September 5, 2019
lol i can’t think of anything i would trust facebook to not accidentally reveal less https://t.co/fiN8c3WKDc
— Ashley Feinberg (ashleyfeinberg.bsky.social) (@ashleyfeinberg) September 5, 2019
Facebook is going to leverage its other features such as Groups of Events to score you a date – a feature other dating apps lack. With a Facebook Dating profile, you can unlock any Facebook event you were invited to or Facebook group you’re in and begin matching with potential dates who signed up for this option on the guest list or membership roll.
Dating apps already suck. The only thing I expect Facebook Dating to achieve is somehow making it worse… pic.twitter.com/6WkrfJwR8W
— Raquel Willis (she/her) (@RaquelWillis_) September 5, 2019
Countries Facebook Dating is available include: United States, Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Columbia, Uruguay, Ecuador, Peru, Paraguay, Guyana, Mexico, the Philippines, Singapore, Vietnam, Thailand, Suriname, Laos and Malaysia.
Is Facebook Dating separate?
No. Facebook Dating will live as a tab on the main menu on its apps.
Weirdly, African and countries in Europe are not included in this first roll out although Facebook says it will arrive in Europe in early 2020.
It’ll be interesting to see how user privacy is maintained here with the recent breach of Facebook user’s phone numbers found in an unprotected database online where each record contained a user’s unique Facebook ID and the phone number listed on the account.
Facebook Dating will use their matchmaking algorithm to find the foreign power hacking our elections who is right for you.
— Nick Jack Pappas (@Pappiness) September 5, 2019
I joke about Facebook introducing Facebook Dating as being a horrible idea but the true horror only just occurred to me.
There's gonna come a point where it's going to start actively destroying marriages.
— Dr. NerdLove (@DrNerdLove) September 5, 2019
Facebook is going to gain a lot of data from this dating service which it could use for advertising or increase growth on the app that is competing with Instagram for users.
So this is about driving user behavior back towards the blue app at the expense of what seems obvious from the outside.
— Alex Heath (@alexeheath) September 5, 2019
For now, the tech giant has no plans to monetize it.
Facebook Dating. Also known as "We need a deeper data dive on young persuadables for Brad Perscale." https://t.co/VLa4fJGTfK
— Schooley (@Rschooley) September 5, 2019
What they are saying:
“Millennials are already having concerns with privacy issues,” Justin McLeod, CEO of dating app Hinge, which used to require that users log in using their Facebook account, tells Axios. “So I don’t imagine them handing over like the most private part of their lives over to them.”
