The major dating apps are collapsing into each other

Last month, the Tinder also recently added Relationship Types (like monogamy and non-monogamy) and Relationship Goals (long-term, short-term) — which Bumble and Hinge already had.

As these apps become more of a slog for daters, they're also becoming an amalgamation of each other. According to experts, it echos social media companies' cloning features — and could be contributing to the unhappiness with the apps lately.

Different dating apps, same features

Variation between the apps used to be why people chose one over the other, said Melissa Fabello, a relationship coach for politicized people and Ph.D. in human sexuality studies. Tinder was "the hookup app," for example. Bumble branded itself as the "feminist dating app" and had "women making the first move." Hinge's tagline was — and still is — "designed to be deleted," giving off the notion that it's for long-term monogamous connections.

Over time, however, these connotations have shifted. For example, users have been…anti-celibacy ad that landed Bumble in hot water. The app apologized for it, admitting that it missed the mark.

Ettin also identified similarities in how the apps obtain money through premium features: A Rose on Hinge and SuperSwipe on Bumble to indicate extra interest in someone; Standouts on Hinge and For You on Bumble, a section with algorithmically more compatible (or attractive) people that users need to pay to express interest in.

"At Hinge, our app is intentionally designed to help people get out on great dates," a Hinge spokesperson told Mashable. "Every feature is created to help daters be more intentional about who they are, who they like, and why they like them. Additionally, we have an internal team of Ph.D. researchers and behavioral scientists who study how to solve user problems and optimize the app to help our community safely and efficiently meet in person."

To be sure, these two apps aren't totally similar. Bumble is swipe-based and Hinge isn't, for example. But Bumble has been at least inspired by Hinge's features.

According to author and comedian Lane Moore, however, how an app branded itself never stopped users who wanted other things from signing up. Moore hosts the show Tinder seems to be rebranding away from hookup culture in favor of fostering longer-term relationships.

"There was something to be said for Tinder before, where it basically had nothing except an empty box," Ettin said, "because that does make people more open minded. The more criteria you can filter on, the more selective people get."

"At Tinder, our focus is on creating the best possible experience for our users by introducing features that resonate with our community's desire to show up authentically," a Tinder spokesperson told Mashable. 

Even if the apps aren't owned by the same company, they can glean information from each other. In terms of why Bumble — which is part of Bumble Inc. — added prompts, Ettin guessed because they work well on Hinge.

People are over dating apps

These dating app shifts correlate with a time where people are less and less enthused about dating apps. Tinder payers declined nine percent year-over-year from the first quarter of 2023 to that of 2024. (Direct revenue for both Tinder and Hinge, owned by Match Group, increased in the same time however, as did Hinge payers.)

Dating apps make dating hard, despite everyone's want for an easy path to love and connection, said Moore. "With dating apps, yeah, we don't have to leave our house, but it's so much harder to know how someone actually is outside of the app," she said. When she started offering dating app makeovers a few years ago, Moore discovered that people had awful dating profiles — not because they themselves were awful, but because they didn't know how to translate how great they are in their profiles. Add making over one's dating profile as yet another task for online daters.

"One-thousand percent" people are over dating apps, Fabello said. She compared dating apps to dieting companies in that they're designed to fail. It's difficult to get someone to engage in conversation, even more of a hurdle to agree to a date, and you're surrounded by people with different goals in mind for why they're on the app in the first place. 

"Wouldn't it be great if there were just different apps for these different things?" she mused. She used "unicorn hunters" — typically a straight couple looking for a woman to be a third in a threesome — as an example. There are apps designed for non-monogamous connections, like Feeld, and yet these couples are on other apps like Tinder. Fabello guessed this is because they haven't researched and aren't educated on how to ethically go about finding a third.

Another problem with some of the popular dating apps — including Tinder, Feeld, and Bumble — is the reliance on swiping and thus physical attractiveness, Fabello continued. This certainly isn't a new complaint, and there's nothing wrong with valuing this. Fabello compared it to walking in a bar; you're not going to talk to everyone, but the people you find attractive. 

"But it's so similar to the way that social media feels like a game," Fabello said. Like all apps, the point is to keep you on the app or encourage you to pay for extra features, she said. These apps are businesses, and they're designed to be deleted make money. The fact that dating apps gamified dating isn't a novel revelation either, but it's yet another reason why dating apps are getting old. 

As both a user of dating apps and a coach, it's becoming harder and harder for Fabello to determine what app her clients should use based on their needs and what they're looking for. "I'm not a business person — but it just feels like, ultimately, that's going to be the downfall of the apps."