- Meta is adding an AI-powered Dating Assistant to Facebook Dating
- The assistant will help improve profiles, narrow searches, and tailor matches
- Another new feature called Meet Cute will deliver one surprise match per week
Facebook Dating isn’t the romance juggernaut that Tinder or Bumble have been, but Meta believes its digital Cupid can find you love with a sprinkling of AI and a spin of the roulette wheel. Facebook Dating now includes a“Meet Cute” feature that automatically pairs you with a surprise match every week and, in case random chance doesn’t work, there’s a new AI-powered Dating Assistant to help you out.
Meta believes the current system of swiping leaves many romance seekers feeling burned out. The company wants to position Facebook Dating as the antidote, something for those who are single and find themselves staring blankly at their phone, wondering if dating apps are supposed to be fun.
Romance assistant
The AI Dating Assistant tries to be a virtual wingman for both your own profile and in finding you a match. Instead of scrolling until your thumb cramps, you can type in exactly what you’re looking for. The AI can then go beyond the standard filters of height, education, or hometown.
The prompts could be as specific as “someone who lives near me and likes to do activities on the water,” or “a girl in Brooklyn who likes baseball, and isn’t allergic to pets.” The assistant parses those prompts and brings back suggestions tailored to your preferences.
The assistant doubles as a coach for your own profile, offering tips to rewrite your bio and suggesting ideas for first messages or date spots. For people who dread writing bios, this could be a lifesaver. For anyone who has felt stuck staring at a blinking cursor in the “About Me” section, it’s hard to deny the appeal of having a little digital help.
Meet Cute matching
Meet Cute, on the other hand, takes the decision-making out of your hands once a week. Every user gets a surprise match chosen by Meta’s algorithm, with the option to chat or pass. Theoretically, this reintroduces some of the serendipity of meeting someone randomly in real life, which dating apps have largely replaced. That probably depends on how well the random matching goes. On the other hand, if you hit it off with one or more ‘random’ matches, you might wonder if they are that random or if you’re so bland that basically anyone could be a good match for you.
Together, the two features represent a shift in how Meta wants Facebook Dating to stand out. Hundreds of thousands of people in North America still create profiles each month, and matches among 18- to 29-year-olds are up 10% year over year, according to Meta. But the app has lagged behind competitors like Tinder and Hinge, which are already experimenting with AI features of their own. Meta’s bet is that combining a proactive assistant with algorithmic surprise will help dating feel more efficient and maybe even more fun.
Whether it works depends on how well Meta balances AI wisdom and the random sparks of love, and if single people can trust AI to handle matters of the heart.
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