(Last Updated on April 27, 2021 by Datezie Editors)
You can’t swipe through a dating app without seeing some mention of COVID-19. Or masks (or the lack thereof). Or the vaccine. Take Tinder’s most recent Future of Dating report, for example: Since the start of the pandemic, they have found an eightfold increase in the word “vaccine” and a 20-fold increase in the word “antibodies” in member bios. Similarly, OkCupid saw a 137% increase in mentions of the “vaccine” from November 2020 to January of this year, going so far as to say that it’s “the hottest thing you can do right now.” Chances are, these numbers will continue to increase as vaccines became more readily available to younger age groups throughout the country.
But now, some of the world’s best dating apps aren’t just leaving it up to their users to declare how they feel about the vaccine, masks, all of it; some are actually implementing changes to their questionnaire or profile pages. OkCupid added, “Will you get the COVID-19 vaccine,” to their list of questions that users answer when completing their profile. In the short time that this has been up on the site, they have found that those who answer “yes” get 20% more likes and 12% more matches, per a report by OkCupid.
Coffee Meets Bagel (CMB) is taking a similar approach.They recently added a vaccine status to their user profile, allowing singles to select from one of five responses: fully vaccinated, waiting on an additional dose, planning to get vaccinated, not getting vaccinated or prefer not to say. According to Fox News, this move comes after months of research where CMB found 61% of users said that knowing their potential partner’s vaccination status was somewhat important to them, and 43% said they’re more likely to want to match with someone if that person mentions they’ve been vaccinated.
This vaccine status, which can be edited at any point in time, is there to make all users feel comfortable. “By adding a vaccine status to profiles, we wanted to make it easier for daters to have conversations around safety and make informed choices around when and who they want to meet up for date,” Dawoon Kang, chief dating officer and co-founder of Coffee Meets Bagel told FOX News.
Even with this new status symbol, you’ll still see people who come right out the gate with phrases like “Covid vaccinated” or “fully vaccinated” to their name. No matter their approach, it’ll at least make you feel nice and secure knowing that you’re on the same page as the person you match with. Just keep in mind that actions always speak louder than words when it comes to online dating, so if someone’s behavior leads you to believe that they have lied about their vaccination status or feelings surrounding COVID-19, then follow your gut and keep swiping until you meet the perfect someone.
