Spending time on dating apps, I know from experience, can make you a little paranoid. When you swipe and swipe and nothing's working out, it could be that you've had bad luck. It could be that you're too picky. It could be--oh God--that you simply don't pull like you thought you did. But sometimes, whether out of self-protection or righteous skepticism of corporate motives, you might think: Maybe the nameless faces who created this product are conspiring against me to turn a profit--meddling in my dating life so that I'll spend the rest of my days alone, paying for any feature that gives me a shred of hope.

With Christmas over and'cuffing season' drawing to a close, happy couples who spent the end of 2022 snuggled around a fireplace may have finally had their day. Singletons, therefore, are rising up, and today dating apps will see their busiest day of the year as swathes open them up for a swiping session. This has historically been the first Sunday in January and, as New Year's Day fell on a Sunday this year, this makes today the official'Dating Sunday' of 2023. Tinder has revealed that Dating Sunday sees 30 per cent more matches being made than usual on its app. Sundays in January are known to be particularly busy on dating apps like Tinder, Bumble and Hinge, as many singletons start to follow up on their New Year's Resolutions (stock image) Tinder is the world's most popular dating app, and has been downloaded more than 450 million times since launching back in 2012.

Couples who meet through smartphone dating apps are more motivated to move in together and have children, according to a new study. Researchers found that online daters have stronger long-term relationship goals than peers who hook up in more traditional ways - such as at the office or pub. Tinder and rivals such as Bumble, Match and Plenty of Fish have been criticised for fuelling casual sex. But, contrary to popular belief, spreading the net wider increases the chances of settling down with'Mr or Mrs Right', according to psychologists. An analysis of more than 3,000 over-18s in Switzerland showed couples who met on an app were more motivated by the idea of cohabiting.