Young people are moving away from dating apps like Tinder, Hinge, Bumble; here’s what they’re choosing instead

Dating applications are losing their charm as individuals seek love at alternative avenues to forge meaningful connections. Intending to seek someone with shared interests, communities centred around a hobby group are emerging as new platforms for social interaction.

Individuals who once preferred dating apps now prefer groups that offer opportunities to meet like-minded people in less pressured environments, fostering genuine relationships beyond the swipe culture.

Dating apps lose significance

Online dating, which first appeared with the launch of match.com 30 years ago, has fundamentally altered our relationships.

According to Pew Research Center, around 10 per cent of heterosexual people and 24 per cent of LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) people have met their long-term partners online, .

However, new evidence suggests that young people are switching off dating apps, with the UK’s top 10 seeing a fall of nearly 16 per cent, according to a report published by Ofcom in November 2024.

BBC cited another report saying Tinder lost 5,94,000 users, while Hinge dropped by 1,31,000, Bumble by 368,000, and Grindr by 11,000.

However, a Grindr spokesperson told BBC that they were “not familiar with this study’s source data” and that their UK users “continue to rise year over year”.

Alternatives to dating apps

According to a 2023 Axios study of US college students and other Gen Zers, 79 per cent said they were forgoing regular dating app usage.

“Some analysts speculate that for younger people, particularly Gen Z, the novelty of dating apps is wearing off,” said a 2024 Online Nation report, Ofcom.

In a January 2024 letter to shareholders, Match Group Inc – which owns Tinder and Hinge – acknowledged younger people were seeking “a lower pressure, more authentic way to find connections”.

“The idea of using a shared interest to meet someone isn’t new, but it’s been reinvented in this particular moment in time – it signals a desire of Gen Z,” BBC quoted Carolina Bandinelli, an associate professor at Warwick University whose research focuses on the digital technologies of romance.

‘Affinity-based’ sites see growth

While the membership of some dating apps appears to be in decline, platforms based on common interests are attracting more users.

According to Danait Tesfay, 26, a marketing assistant from London, younger people are looking for alternatives to dating apps, “whether that be gaming or running clubs or extra-curricular clubs, where people are able to meet other like-minded people and eventually foster a romantic connection”.

For instance, the fitness app Strava now has 135m users – and its monthly active users grew by 20 per cent last year, according to the company. Other so-called “affinity-based” sites have seen similar growth: Letterboxd, where film fans can share reviews, says its community grew by 50 per cent last year.

Rise of online communities

According to the BBC report, singletons are able to find each other in their online equivalents, just like in the pre-internet age, when couples might have met at a sports club or the cinema.

“People have always bonded over shared interests, but it’s been given a digital spin with these online communities,” BBC quoted Luke Brunning, co-director of the Centre for Love, Sex, and Relationships (CLSR) at the University of Leeds.

“It’s increasingly difficult to distinguish between behaviour that’s on a dating app and dating behaviour on another platform.”