How Vancouver's dating scene transformed this summer

Oct 6 2016, 10:54 pm

Written for Daily Hive by Paul Davidescu


Dating and social interaction as a whole got flipped on its head all in one short July week – especially here in Vancouver. Fall never looked this promising thanks to Tinder’s game changing “Tinder Social” feature, the official Canadian release of Pokémon Go, and the launch of a couple local Vancouver dating apps focused on artificial intelligence and DNA matching – dating just got a lot freakier.

To paint a story for you, you can now spark up a conversation with anyone who appears to be texting and walking but whose fingers are completely idle and ask: “Hey, have you caught any Pokémon around this area?” If we find each other attractive, we might actually go for one of those long walks on the beach and kindle a relationship hunting for a Charmander – enter Pokemon Go. And of course, if you want to be more direct about it, the Pokedates app has you covered.

With Tinder Social, you can finally tie in a wingman or group of friends and an activity you both want to do tonight with meeting new people. It’s as simple as starting a private group with your crew and choosing one of Tinder’s premade going out categories such as “We’re going out,” “Happy hour anyone?” or of course, “Gotta catch ‘em all.” If another crew in the area likes your style and is also in the mood to do what you’re doing – it’s a match!

This is a major void I’ve been waiting a few years to see filled and now that relevant activities and the backup of your crew are blended together, the risk of a wasted date has gone down 10x. This changes the game. On that note, if you’re cheering for the home team give Want To a go. It functions very much like Tinder Social and was launched locally a few months ago.

Now for those who are a little more into traditional dating in the sense that they want it private and want to keep their friends and Pokemon far far away, downloading Bernie and supporting their live crowdfunding campaign for DNA Romance might be more up your alley.

Bernie is an AI personal assistant who learns your “type” and then works in the background to match with people who fit your criteria. It then starts off most of your conversations with a fun icebreaker, which usually gets a conversation going before you even realize there was a match!

See also

DNA Romance is an online dating services company that matches customers based on the compatibility of their DNA, thereby providing evidence-based matchmaking that goes beyond appearance and questionnaires. Both of these local startups are in their very early days so you’ll have to be patient with them but your early love will go a long way in helping them solve 21st century love.

Augmented reality, social activity-based dating, artificial intelligence, and DNA matching have started to flirt with the dating industry and sooner than later, the marriage of these technologies just might cause the problem of dating to go POOF!

 

Paul Davidescu is the CEO (Chief Eating Officer) at Tangoo, which empowers restaurants and hospitality brands to evolve their online brands in collaboration with online foodie influencers and turnkey social media campaigns. Find him on Instagram at @pauldavidescu.

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