The point of using a dating service is to meet up with a person and date them— or do other things, no judgment here. Facebook Dating does not seem to be worth the time or effort when other apps are available and already established.
Facebook launched a dating service at the beginning of September. The dating service allows you to swipe left or right on people from cities and schools related to you. Facebook Dating is offered on Facebook phone apps but not on computers.
Facebook Dating combines the layout of Bumble and Tinder. Facebook has settings similar to Bumble’s to allow your height, religious views and opinions on having children. The inclusion of your Instagram posts is also an option.
A feature the Facebook dating service offers that is different is called Second Look. This option gives the chance to look at matches you have passed on. There are also no super likes, only the basic like and dislike.
There is also an option to add a secret crush. You can add up to nine Facebook friends or Instagram followers onto your list of crushes. The person will be notified if someone adds them but they will not see the name of the person unless they add the same person to a crush list.
Bumble and Tinder are already prominent dating apps and Facebook’s service seems to try to break into the dating area. There are also other dating sites too such as Grindr, Plenty of Fish and OKCupid, leaving the question of why is Facebook doing this.
Facebook trying to make a dating service seems like they want to own all of social media. Facebook already owns a lot of the social media apps we normally use such as Instagram, Whatsapp and even technology such as Oculus VR. Facebook added the option to post stories on Instagram and Facebook after Snapchat got popular.
The idea of using Facebook to date people is a strange concept to me. People have found significant others through Facebook by chance, but trying to date through Facebook seems weird. The only reason other dating apps seem normal is that I use Facebook to keep up with friends and post about my life.
A bit odd is you can press on a picture and send a message on top of liking the person. It is not the weirdest thing, but it could lead to a message you did not want to see. The same can be done with the pictures from Instagram.
The dating profiles show how many mutual friends each person has. This can lead to a person being easily found on normal Facebook. It seems safer to have no mention of mutual friends, a feature Tinder use to have but got rid of. It might not seem like a big deal, but knowing mutual friends and a name can make it really easy to search for someone.
Unlike other dating apps, I get people recommended to me from across America because of mutual friends. People from Utah and Texas are recommended because I happen to have a mutual friend who lives close to them and is also friends with them. The chance of starting a long-distance relationship over Facebook seems unlikely and not worth the time.
I understand that Facebook Dating was just released, but until it gets redone you might as well use one of the other apps. Stick to what you know, Zuckerberg. Like keeping the world connected and stealing data.
