How dating apps frustrate you into paying for them

You'll have a higher chance at finding love if you pay for dating apps' features or subscriptions. That's what some dating app slogans claim.

"Twice more dates, 15 times more matches, more exceptional connections," the ads for Hinge, Bumble and Tinder read.

But should you spend money on dating apps? A number of researchers and users with whom CBC News spoke say these companies are doing ethically question‐ able things - like restricting the pool of users - to try to convince you to.

Pressured to pay

Dominique Laurencelle, who is 37 and lives in Victoria, has been using dating platforms on and off for 19 years.

While on Tinder recently, she said the app showed her photos of three people who had already "swiped right" on her profile to match with her.

"But if you want to mes‐ sage them and swipe on them, you have to pay."

Laurencelle said pressur‐ ing tactics to spend money on dating apps are becoming more common, and she finds them frustrating.

She's not the only one.

Users want to take this dating-app company to court

In February, six dating-app users in the U.S. filed a pro‐ posed class-action lawsuit in California against Match Group, which owns Tinder,

Hinge and The League, over its "predatory" business model.

The lawsuit alleges the company intentionally uses game-like features to keep paying users in the dating loop instead of actually helping them find love.

The plaintiffs say that goes against one of Match Group's ad slogans - that its apps are "designed to be deleted."

A Match Group spokesperson said in a public statement that the lawsuit is "ridiculous and has zero mer‐ it."

The proposed class action hasn't been certified by the federal court in Northern Cal‐ ifornia.

Using 'human beings as pawns' to increase prof‐ its

Gizmodo technology journal‐ ist Thomas Germain, who spent a year researching Hinge and its algorithm, said dating apps don't want to get users addicted to swiping all day.

"What they want is for you to pay."

To do so, he said, the apps will engage in ethically ques‐ tionable - though not illegal tactics to make you frus‐ trated with your options in the free version of the app.

Hinge, for example, will rank your attractiveness by using your profile photos when you join the platform, Germain said. Based on the users who swipe right or left on you, the algorithm adjusts the ranking.

"If someone who's very at‐ tractive likes you, that means that your rating goes up a lit‐ tle bit. If someone who's judged to be unattractive re‐ jects you, then your rating is going to go down," he said.

The app will then limit the amount of people it shows you who it determines are "in your same league" to con‐ vince you that you need to pay for a subscription to ac‐ cess better matches.

Most dating apps give free users a set amount of swipes per day. Germain said he's heard from many people that once they've run out of their allotment of swipes for the day, the next person that the app shows them is the most attractive person they've seen all day.

But to swipe right on them, you have to pay.

"That could be a coinci‐ dence, or it could be because these apps are using human beings as pawns to manipu‐ late people to increase their bottom line," said Germain.

CBC News reached out to Hinge for an interview about these tactics, but the com‐ pany declined.

Liesel Sharabi, an asso‐ ciate professor in the Hugh Downs School of Human Communication at Arizona State University, says it's tough to pin down what each platform is doing because they don't share this informa‐ tion publicly. "I think all of those things are strategies to get people to pay for premi‐ um features and to pay for subscriptions," she said. "So much about the way these dating apps work is very much proprietary."

WATCH | How dating ap‐ ps convince people to pay for them:

Racially biased algorith‐ ms

Hannah Jeffrey, a 28-yearold from Vancouver, used dating apps throughout her 20s before matching with her current partner on Bumble almost a year ago.

She said the potential matches who were shown to her behind Hinge's and Bum‐ ble's paywalls were "always, always white people. I never, ever saw people of colour. So that's concerning in itself that an app is choosing what races are going to be more attractive than others."

Jeffrey said she doesn't get how the apps' algorithms decide who is attractive enough to be the "sparkly hidden match."

No one really does, both Germain and Sharabi say. They liken dating-app algo‐ rithms to "black boxes," be‐ cause they're impossible to understand, given the secre‐ tive nature of the companies that design them.

CBC News reached out to Bumble, Tinder and Hinge to ask specifically about their al‐ gorithms. None of them agreed to do an interview.

Tinder and Bumble said no one was available for an interview, but both sent de‐ tailed emails describing their subscription plans - all of which are available on their websites.

Hinge also declined an in‐ terview request.

Premium Tinder more expensive for people over 30

But dating apps engaging in morally contentious tactics isn't new.

A 2022 investigation by Consumers International found Tinder was charging people aged 30 to 49 up to six times more to use its pre‐ mium features than users between 18 to 29 years old.

"That's ageism," said Nicole Haley, a Vancouverbased dating coach. "And I think it's capitalizing on that pain point - that loneliness, or that insecurity - and mak‐ ing money off it."

The study shows users who were experiencing dif‐ ferential pricing were located in New Zealand, the U.S., the Netherlands, South Korea, In‐ dia and Brazil.

Tinder ended the practice just before the embargo lifted on the investigation.

How much are people actually spending on dating apps?

The basic subscriptions of some popular dating apps that CBC News reviewed, such as Hinge and Tinder, range from $12.99 to $19.99 a week.

But the prices can go way higher. Tinder Select costs around $670 a month, and The League has a VIP option for $1350 US a week.

"In some of my research, I found that there are people who've spent thousands of dollars on dating apps be‐ cause they've been on them for a long time," Sharabi said.

According to a survey con‐ ducted by the Pew Research Center in July of 2022, about one-third of dating-app users in the U.S. say they've paid to use dating apps or one of their features. And men are more likely to have paid than women.

Of the nearly 5,000 re‐ spondents, the survey found that those aged 30 and older are more likely to have paid to use an app.

"Presumably because old‐ er users are going to be a lit‐ tle bit more desperate, a little bit more willing to pay," said Germain.

So is it worth paying for dating apps?

It depends on what you're looking for, and if you're will‐ ing to spend some extra cash.

"I feel like you definitely make better connections and it's a little less stressful. Most of the paid subscriptions al‐ ready show you who's al‐ ready swiped on you," Lau‐ rencelle said.

But paying for apps is un‐ affordable for some people who are already struggling to keep up with rising costs.

"Who can afford paying for something extra right now in this economy? I'm just trying to pay rent. I can't pay for dating, as well," said Nas‐ tasha Streiling, a 28-year-old in Victoria.

Pay for one app, first tier

Meanwhile, Haley points out that paying for an app doesn't mean that finding a partner will be quicker or easier.

But if you decide to pay, her suggestion is to choose one app and stick to the first tier, or you might have too many options. And that, she said, can make it harder to choose.

Agraj Rathi, a 27-year-old in Vancouver who's been on and off dating apps for two years, said he's all too famili‐ ar with that.

"Paying might not neces‐ sarily enhance the dating ex‐ perience because … you get access to so many more peo‐ ple, you stop valuing those interactions as much. And 'there's plenty of fish in the sea' becomes, like, really real," he said.

According to Haley, it's not about how much you pay for apps, but how your profile looks that might get you bet‐ ter dates.

This is part of CBC News Social's dating series, which explores the realities of being single and dating in Canada today.