I've just come out of a long-term lockdown. Instead, they crave the friendships and social groups they have been starved of over the past year. That's the verdict of dating apps such as Tinder and Bumble, which are launching or acquiring new services focused entirely on making and maintaining friends. "There's a really interesting trend that has been taking place in the connection space, which is this desire to have platonic relationships," said Bumble founder and CEO Whitney Wolfe Herd. "People are seeking friendship in ways they would have only done offline before the pandemic."

Pairs is Japan's top-ranked dating app, with 3.1 million downloads in 2020, according to data tracker App Annie. It is aimed at singles serious about matrimony and tries to make women comfortable about signing up. Men have to pay and show their full real names if they want to start chatting. Women get in free and can use initials. They also choose the places to meet.

As Valentine's Day approaches and the aroma of love turns even devout singletons into frenzied love-seekers, many will invariably turn to dating apps for help. But caving in and venturing into the murky world of Hinge, Tinder and Bumble is a poisoned chalice, doomed to fail even if it works, a new study reveals. Academics have found people who have success in the fickle world of virtual swiping perceive themselves to be desirable as a result of their conquests. This sense of self-desirability, it has been proved, makes a person more likely to cheat when they eventually settle down into a serious relationship. Dr Cassandra Alexopoulos of the University of Massachusetts led the research and quizzed 395 participants on their dating app use.

Many women use dating apps like Tinder and Bumble to confirm their attractiveness rather than find a partner. New research into our swiping habits habits has found that men swipe with an eye for casual sex while girls prefer to use dating apps for an ego boost. This is because women get a kick out of being perceived as a potential partner by other users, scientists said. 'Women use dating apps to feel better about themselves more than men do,' said study coauthor Dr Mons Bendixen, from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim. Lead author Ernst Olav Botnen added: 'Men tend to report a desire for casual sex and short-term relationships as a reason for using dating apps.

That hard-to-imagine prospect was eHarmony's reality when it first launched 16 years ago. Users created a dating profile, filled out a 450-item questionnaire, and reviewed matches without the ability to see any other users' pictures. Over the years, the site has added photos and made its clunky interface easier to navigate. That, however, hasn't stopped free mobile apps like Tinder and Bumble from stealing users away from the dating site stalwart. "People do end up on those sites looking for relationships, and we see that as our challenge," says eHarmony CEO Grant Langston.