Facebook today announced plans to bring dating services to the Facebook app. Dating on Facebook will utilize Facebook’s social graph to identify potential matches. CEO Mark Zuckerberg said people won’t be matched with friends, and your friends won’t be able to see your dating profile.
“This is going to be for real long-term relationships, not just for hookups,” Zuckerberg said onstage at F8, Facebook’s annual developer conference being held today and tomorrow, May 1 and 2, at the McEnery Convention Center in San Jose, California.
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Roughly 200 million Facebook users list themselves as single in their relationship status, a Facebook spokesperson told VentureBeat in an email.
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Dating profiles can be created by tapping the heart icon at the top right-hand corner of your user profile.
Users will have to opt in to create a dating profile and to be seen by people around them. Dating profiles only share a user’s first name. Users will also have the choice to unlock their dating profile for nearby groups and events in order to meet people with similar interests.
“We like this because it mirrors in the way that people actually date, which is usually at events or institutions they know,” chief product officer Chris Cox said.
Dating matches can chat and send text-only messages in a chat experience that does not connect with Facebook Messenger or WhatsApp.
“We hope this will help more folks meet and find more partners. We’re excited to share a lot more on this in the next few months,” Cox said.
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