Vice Contributor Returns Negative Feedback on Facebook Dating

A Canadian journalist has published an article on Vice documenting her first experiences of Facebook Dating.

The new platform was released in Canada and Thailand earlier this month, following the initial rollout in Colombia in September.

Ebony Renee-Baker admitted she was reluctant to try the new style of dating and overall, her feedback was mostly negative.

Her first complaint was the way users interact with the suggested profiles. She said she prefers swipe-based apps because she finds them more user-friendly.

She also didn’t like being forced to send a message to everyone that she was ‘interested’ in, because it slowed down the whole the process. However, she was using the service in a very casual way, and more serious daters tend to prefer non-swiping platforms.

The fact that there was no matching process led to her being inundated with messages from men she hadn’t shown interest in.

Furthermore, she noted that no push notifications came through meaning she missed a lot of messages and had to always keep checking the tab.

Perhaps her most justified criticism was that the suggestion algorithm didn’t appear to work properly. She claimed she was constantly being suggested profiles that were out of her selected distance range, age range and height range.

Overall, Renee-Baker concluded that using Facebook Dating left her feeling “exhausted” and she also realised a lot of other users appeared to delete Dating within a few days.

If everyone is finding as many faults as she did, it could be a while before Facebook globally launches the service.

Read more here.