Everyday the public seems to wake up to a new slew of alarming headlines when it comes to COVID-19. This global pandemic is affecting every aspect of life as the world knows it. Health and safety concerns are of paramount importance, but social distancing has caused a lot of additional questions and worries to develop and arise. Society as a whole is trying to learn how to combat loneliness while abiding by the recommendations and policies put in place in light of COVID-19.
Dating is one of many parts of our lives affected during these uncertain times. Thankfully, in today’s Internet age, there is no need to halt it all together – some people even believe the conditions of COVID-19 could maximize the opportunity of finding love through online dating. Actress Meredith Salenger recently took to Twitter sharing her own virtual dating love story and encouraging single people to take advantage of this odd time.
Dating during a quarantine
Many dating applications are able to offer video features to aid and support people when meeting in person is not possible or discouraged.
A few years ago, dating app Hinge started allowing its users to upload small clips of themselves to their profile. It doesn’t work like video chat, but it is still incredibly helpful to have active footage of someone versus a photo when trying to gage and judge character and compatibility. Lively is an application that does allow for direct video chats in the dating realm.
This article outlines some of the more popular dating apps that utilize video. Some of them began incorporating video in order to put an end to catfishing, but the features also lend themselves nicely for unlikely instances that involve social distancing and quarantines.
With a rise in video dating, Trust & Safety focuses its shift
As we see more dating apps introduce video and other quarantine-friendly features, Trust & Safety professionals see their focuses shift.
Where once they may have been exclusively focusing on keeping chats safe, now they are accelerating their capabilities to keep video dates safe. Dating apps are updating their guidelines and investing in additional technology with automation capabilities, anticipating a possible decrease in the capacity of their moderators.