Meta’s Facebook Dating is the latest matching platform to deploy AI features, hoping to prevent dating app burnout known as “swipe fatigue.”
The average dating app user spends more than 50 minutes a day just swiping, according to a recent Forbes Health survey. But a customizable search function may help alleviate swipe fatigue by giving online daters new ways to connect beyond swiping through potential matches, Facebook Dating product manager Neha Kumar told Fortune. Meta also announced this week another feature that automatically matches a user with a surprise match based on a personalized algorithm.
Meta’s AI chatbot Dating Assistant helps users customize searches so they “go beyond traditional traits like height or education, supporting unique prompts like, ‘Find me a Brooklyn girl who loves live music, cats, and museums,’” Kumar said.
Meta’s features arrive as its competitors race to deploy their own AI-powered tools. Hinge’s CEO told Fast Company he expects “mass swiping” to become “arcane” within three to five years, as people will increasingly turn to AI-driven searches where they input exactly what they want in a potential match—making endless swipe sessions obsolete.
The new search option offers more than what’s currently available on other dating apps, Kumar said. But other larger competitors have developed their own AI features. Tinder has an AI photo selector; Hinge has one that gives users an option to improve their responses to profile prompts with AI. Bumble has similar features, plus an AI-powered icebreaker feature to begin conversations.
The platform looks to capitalize on young adults, an age group that has seen a 10% increase in matches year over year, Kumar said. Kumar declined to comment on how many users are currently on the platform.
Both of Meta’s new AI-powered features are free, but some experts tell Fortune they still might not be effective.
“My first thought is, these new AI features may feel like too little, too late,” Amber Lee, a matchmaker and relationship expert, told Fortune. “Gen Z already associates Facebook as a platform for an older demographic, so this feels more like a PR stunt than something groundbreaking in the dating space.”
Gen Z has been slower than millennials to adopt AI features in dating apps even though AI can polish profiles and suggest conversation starters, Lee said.
But “this can potentially backfire as users are looking for authentic connections,” Lee noted. “Gen Z is likely to be turned off by the inauthentic nature of AI-polished profiles. These singles are seeking genuine connection, not one [run] by AI.”
To be sure, some dating experts see the features as a step in the right direction for AI-powered dating apps.
Jess Carbino, a former sociologist for Tinder and Bumble, told Fortune Meta’s new feature is an intuitive move.
“It’s trying to understand users’ needs in a more granular way,” Carpino said. “Custom search points to a shift from demographic-driven filters to a more robust system for zeroing in on personal preferences.”
Carpino also points to long-standing misconceptions about Gen Z’s “fatigue,” noting that many in the cohort are still in school or embedded in local communities—historically the channels where people have met romantic partners.
Still, skeptics question whether more personalization and less friction is really what Gen Z users crave.
Avigail Lev, a psychologist and dating coach, told Fortune that singles want tools that “help them bring relationships into real life more quickly”—things like local events, group meetups, or gentle nudges to take conversations offline.
“Swipe fatigue is real, but it doesn’t come from the physical act of swiping,” Lev said. “It comes from the endless, addictive loop of browsing options without meaningful follow-through.”
