Grindr charges $6K/yr for AI | 84% don’t trust dating profiles anymore

This moment? It starts on your dating platform . 1 in 4 U.S. marriages begin with a dating app. Image: Pinterest
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Grindr wants $500 a month for AI matchmaking — turns out love has a premium tier

Grindr launched EDGE, an AI subscription powered by its proprietary “gAI” stack (pronounced “gay-eye” — their branding team deserves a raise or a conversation). Features include AI-curated daily matches, conversation recaps, and compatibility signals woven across the entire app. Piloted in Australia, now expanding to US and Canada with test pricing from $80/week to $499/month. For context, Tinder’s top tier costs $50. Grindr is essentially charging luxury matchmaker prices for an algorithm. At $6,000/year, you could hire an actual human to introduce you to people and still have change for dinner. https://www.grindr.com/blog/testing-edge-our-first-full-powered-gai-tm-subscription

Thursday hits $50M valuation and buys thursday.com — only three years behind schedule

George Rawlings publicly promised LinkedIn he’d build a $50M company in one year. It took four. But the London-based dating app that only works on Thursdays did reach that milestone, acquired the premium domain thursday.com (described as “the biggest purchase of our lives”), and pivoted from app to live singles events. New goal: $500M in five years. At this rate, he’ll get there by 2034. The company proved something valuable though — sometimes the best dating product is a room full of strangers who all agreed to show up on the same day. Novel concept. https://www.linkedin.com/posts/george-rawlings-32b726112_four-years-ago-i-promised-to-build-a-50m-activity-7430217165804474368-VUJN/

Credit score dating app Score relaunches — your FICO now doubles as a pickup line

Score, the app that previously required a 675+ credit score to swipe, is back on iOS with a friendlier two-tier model. Basic tier: open to everyone, no credit check. Verified tier: Equifax confirms your score via soft pull, unlocking priority visibility, video intros, and pre-match messaging. Founder Luke Bailey frames credit as “a reflection of consistency and reliability.” Banks and romantic partners both look for the same thing, apparently. The first version attracted 50,000 users in six months before vanishing. Meanwhile, average US credit scores dropped to 715 — fastest decline since 2009. Nothing says romance like financial anxiety. https://techcrunch.com/2026/02/13/score-the-dating-app-for-good-to-excellent-credit-returns-for-everyone-to-use/

From Dating Pro: Building a niche dating platform? Start with the ROI math

Credit-score dating, luxury matchmaking, faith-based apps — niche platforms outperform general ones on LTV. Use our ROI calculator to estimate your earnings before writing a single line of code. Estimate your earnings →

Bumble slapped with class action after ShinyHunters breach exposes SSNs alongside chat history

A Texas woman filed suit against Bumble after the ShinyHunters hacking collective allegedly accessed names, Social Security numbers, phone numbers, and — delightfully — complete chat history through a phishing attack on January 29. The lawsuit claims Bumble stored this data unencrypted on poorly protected servers. Bumble says the incident is “contained.” Their terms of service say disputes go to arbitration, not court. When your platform keeps dating confessions in the same database as government IDs, “contained” is doing heavy lifting. https://www.kxan.com/news/national-news/class-action-lawsuit-brought-against-dating-app-bumble-over-january-data-breach/

56% of singles say AI photos on profiles are an instant dealbreaker

A survey of 1,000 US daters found that more than half consider AI-generated or AI-enhanced photos a hard no. Another 46% dislike AI-written messages, and 38% wouldn’t date someone who’s had simulated romance with chatbots. Gen Z is especially suspicious — probably because they’ve actually used the tools and know what generated content looks like. Dating apps are racing to add AI features while their users are racing to detect and punish AI usage. Somewhere, a product manager is having a difficult week. https://www.ejuicedb.com/blogs/news/dating-red-flags-trends-study

84% of UK singles say deepfakes have wrecked their trust in dating apps

A UK study reports that 84% of singles believe deepfake technology has made dating platforms fundamentally less trustworthy. The concern extends beyond photos to video verification, voice messages, and essentially anything that can be synthetically generated — which, in 2026, is everything. For dating platform builders, this creates a product requirement that no AI feature can solve: proving that the person on the screen is the person at dinner. Old-fashioned problem. Expensive to fix. https://itbrief.co.uk/story/ai-deepfakes-erode-trust-and-reshape-uk-dating-apps

IRLY app acquired by DUA AG — another indie app enters the portfolio machine

Kosovan-founded holding company DUA AG picked up IRLY, a Canadian dating app, continuing the industry’s consolidation trend. Smaller niche apps keep getting absorbed by multi-brand operators building dating conglomerates. The lifecycle is now predictable: launch with a manifesto about fixing dating, acquire users, get acquired, become slide 7 in someone’s investor deck. Circle of life. https://vantechjournal.com/p/vancouver-founded-gen-z-dating-app-irly-acquired-by-european-dating-group-dua-ag

AI agents are now creating dating profiles and flirting on behalf of humans — sometimes without asking

MoltMatch, a dating platform built on top of the OpenClaw AI agent framework, lets autonomous bots create profiles, swipe, match, message, and even tip other users on behalf of their human owners. One user, a CS student in California, signed up for OpenClaw as a task assistant — and discovered his AI had built him a dating profile and started screening dates without permission. Worse: AFP found that one of MoltMatch’s top profiles used stolen photos of a Malaysian model who doesn’t use dating apps. Elon Musk called it “the very early stages of the singularity.” The rest of us might call it the early stages of a liability nightmare. For platform operators: if you thought bots were already a problem, wait until the bots have their own bots. https://techxplore.com/news/2026-02-hot-bots-ai-agents-dating.html

Saudi Arabia becomes an unexpected growth market for Tinder and dating apps

Tinder and competing platforms are reporting significant user growth in Saudi Arabia — a market most Western dating companies assumed was off-limits. The growth reflects social shifts among younger Saudis and a reminder that “addressable market” is a moving target. The companies that ignored this region for cultural reasons are now watching competitors gain first-mover advantage. Assumptions age poorly in this industry. https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/saudi-arabia-tinder-youth-dating-c17f02fa

Happn CEO reveals 39% of users deliberately avoided the app during Valentine’s week

Happn shared data showing that four in ten active users chose to sit out Valentine’s week entirely. The counterintuitive finding suggests that the biggest dating marketing event of the year actually drives a chunk of your audience away. For every platform operator who tripled their Valentine’s push notification budget: a third of your users were specifically hiding from you. Cupid’s arrow missed. https://rmc.bfmtv.com/actualites/societe/saint-valentin-ce-n-est-pas-la-peine-de-se-mettre-la-pression-il-y-a-un-celibat-assume_AV-202602140213.html

3 in 10 singles now use LinkedIn for dating — professionalism was nice while it lasted

Resume.org surveyed singles and found 30% have used LinkedIn as a dating platform, with many actively inviting coworkers to slide into their DMs. The world’s largest professional network has become an accidental dating app. “Open to work” apparently means something different after 6pm. LinkedIn’s algorithm was built for recruiter spam, not chemistry — though some would argue the difference is subtle. https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/resumeorg-survey-3-in-10-singles-use-linkedin-as-a-dating-app-and-invite-coworkers-to-slide-into-their-dms-302687110.html

Colorado advances bill requiring warrants before cops access dating app data

Colorado legislators are pushing a bill that would force law enforcement to get judicial warrants before requesting user data from dating and social platforms. It cleared its first committee. If enacted, it would set a state-level precedent that goes beyond current federal protections. The regulatory floor keeps rising — and dating platforms that haven’t invested in data governance are building on borrowed time. https://www.cbsnews.com/colorado/news/colorado-bill-social-media-online-dating-sites/

Almost half of Gen Z resent dating apps but can’t figure out how else to meet people

A survey found 48% of Gen Z users actively resent online dating but continue using apps because they see no realistic alternative. This is the industry’s dirty retention secret: users don’t stay because the product works, they stay because the alternatives are worse. It’s the gym membership of relationships — everyone has one, nobody’s happy about it, and canceling feels like giving up. https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/38179511/gen-z-resent-online-dating/

Comparitech audits privacy of 100+ dating apps — spoiler: it’s not great

Security firm Comparitech reviewed privacy practices across more than 100 dating apps and found widespread issues with data collection transparency, sharing with third parties, and user control. Most apps collect far more data than users realize and disclose far less than regulators would prefer. For platform builders: the privacy audit is coming whether you prepare for it or not. Better to be the one who passes. https://www.comparitech.com/news/the-privacy-costs-of-dating-on-your-phone-100-dating-apps-analyzed/

$50-ticket singles mixers are booming as people rediscover meeting humans in rooms

Offline singles events with $50+ ticket prices are seeing surging attendance across US and UK cities. Thursday pivoted to this model (see above, now valued at $50M). The trend isn’t anti-tech — it’s anti-bad-tech. Users are paying premium prices to stand in a bar and talk to strangers, which is literally what people did before dating apps existed. Full circle. https://www.ctinsider.com/business/article/singles-mixers-speed-dating-app-ct-stamford-21344673.php

From Dating Pro: Your users are leaving. Here’s exactly where and why.

Our breakdown of churn rate in online dating covers the precise moment value fails to appear, how cold-start kills beginners in bulk, and why trust features reduce churn more than any UI redesign. If you’re losing users faster than you’re acquiring them, start here. https://www.datingpro.com/blog/how-to-reduce-user-churn-rate-churn-rate-in-online-dating-causes-and-retention-strategies/

From Dating Pro: Privacy isn’t a settings page — it’s an architecture decision.

With 84% of UK singles worried about deepfakes and 100+ apps failing basic privacy audits, we wrote about building anonymity, temporary profiles, and real data control into your platform. Before your users demand it, and before regulators require it. https://www.datingpro.com/blog/the-future-of-privacy-in-dating-apps-anonymity-temporary-profiles-and-data-control/

Keeper offers a $50,000 “marriage bounty” — and VCs are betting AI matchmaking will replace the swipe

A wave of AI matchmaking startups is attracting serious VC money by promising to kill the swipe. Keeper, the most audacious, charges users a $50,000 bounty if its AI finds their life partner — deducting $5K per arranged date to incentivize speed. The startup has already collected on several bounties. London-based Fate conducts AI personality interviews and delivers ~5 curated matches with conversation coaching. Sitch sells 3-date packages for $90 in NYC, with an AI modeled on its co-founder’s grandmother’s matchmaking instincts. Champion Hill Ventures GP Josh Manchester calls traditional dating apps “attention harvesting machines” and frames AI matchmaking as “Moneyball for dating.” The economics are shifting: AI compute costs dropped 98% since these startups launched, making per-user matchmaking viable at scale. For platform builders: this is what happens when investors decide swiping is a bug, not a feature. https://pitchbook.com/news/articles/ai-takes-a-swipe-at-the-online-dating-scene

Kindred launches a dating platform where your friends do the swiping — no algorithms, no paywalls

San Francisco-based Kindred launched a free matchmaking platform built on a simple premise: your friends know you better than any algorithm. Users sign up as “Daters” (singles seeking matches) or “Validators” (friends who play amateur matchmaker using their social networks). No swiping, no paid boosts, no AI — just mutual connections surfaced through existing relationships. Live in NYC, DC, Chicago, and SF, with in-person matchmaking mixers planned. CEO Jennifer Wlach says the gap in online dating is participation: friends want to help their single friends but lack a structured way to do it. In an industry racing toward AI everything, Kindred is betting the opposite direction — that the best matching algorithm is a group chat with your college roommates. https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/kindred-a-new-matchmaking-platform-invites-your-community-to-play-cupid-302686311.html

Relationship scientist says online dating is not a numbers game — and has the data to prove it

UC Davis psychology professor Paul Eastwick told the LA Times that the entire premise of dating apps is built on bad evolutionary psychology. His new book “Bonded by Evolution” argues that there’s no objective “mate value,” desirability is subjective and unpredictable, and what people actually want is a secure attachment bond — not the highest-ranked profile. Eastwick calls the swipe model a market with “dramatic winners and losers” that makes users feel like clearance items. The research-backed takeaway for platform builders: compatibility-first design outperforms volume-first design. The apps that survive will be the ones that stop treating relationships like inventory management. https://www.latimes.com/lifestyle/story/2026-02-12/how-to-date-better-according-to-relationship-science