Voice Notes Feature Gaining Popularity in Gen-Z Dating

A new dating trend is emerging among Gen Z, surprising older generations and established couples: exchanging voice notes before the first date. While stereotypically known for avoiding phone calls, Gen Z has embraced voice memos as a way to connect and assess compatibility before meeting in person. This has been most prominent in Australia (from the information gathered so far), although these voice notes are seeing regular use all across the world.

Voice notes in apps are generally voice replacements for regular messages, audio snippets recorded in-the-moment and sent within the same chat as a playable sound file. After gaining some prominence in the COVID-19 lockdowns as a way to socialise more comfortably, voice notes have seen adoption across a range of different platforms,

Relationship expert Logan Ury noted that its growing popularity as a way to “screen” potential dates. Instead of relying solely on texting, which can sometimes feel impersonal, voice notes provide a more authentic glimpse into a person’s personality, tone, and communication style. It replaces bigger and more meaningful phone calls with a simpler one-off audio message, removing a lot of the stress that comes with talking to a new match verbally for the first time.

If this trend continues to gain popularity and isn’t just a holdover from the lockdown days, then dating platforms may need to add these voice notes to stay competitive. While it might not be the most glamorous of features, these voice memos have become an integral part of many people’s dating processes.