It’s been a record year for dating apps. They still haven’t figured it out

To fix this, several startups have launched niche dating apps — some confusing, others completely predictable — designed to meet unique needs, with many built around the promise of artificial intelligence. snakecreated by a former product manager at Snap, uses a chatbot to send messages back and forth with potential daters on your behalf. There too Rez, irisand HamasThey all leverage artificial intelligence to find your soulmate by helping users deal with first impressions and awkward conversations. For individuals interested in other forms of companionship, for example, avant-garde, ones that completely remove humans from the equation, there are apps like Eva AI and Lunawhich acts as your AI friend.

It’s still too early to say how effective any of these AI-powered apps are at reducing people’s likelihood of ghosting, but a recent study a report Hopelab found that 40 percent of young people rely on chatbots to have ongoing conversations. The report concluded that the future of dating promises to be more talkative and weird than ever before.

Still, right-swiping exhaustion remains a major concern among singles of every demographic. In the wilds of dating, app fatigue is contagious. No one knows that better than JB, Al Energy history From New York I spoke with in September. At the time, he had been on 200 post-breakup dates — mostly from Hinge and Raya — and expressed feeling exhausted, even when he couldn’t completely tear himself away from the addictive excitement of app dating.

I heard from JB in December. He reached out to me to tell me that he had somehow forgotten to share the “most turbulent” dating story from our initial series of conversations. “I can’t believe I only thought about this recently,” he wrote via text message. A girl on our third date says, “If you have good sex with me tonight, I’ll cancel my other dates this week.”

Did you do that? I fired again.

“I was angry. I almost finished the date,” he said. “She was winning until she hit me with that toxic shit.”

JB told me he’s still tired of apps but still uses them a lot. The week we spoke, he was fresh out of another breakup. A recent flirtation in Philadelphia ended after the woman lied about talking to other people, he said. She made the first move with Raya and later they created more bond trading DMs on Instagram. I chased after him, which is rare and refreshing in pace. “I was smitten,” he says. Which made it even more difficult when the relationship ended. “You looked for me just to lie about it?”

JB is currently on the rebound, or what he describes to me as a period of “side quests” — babysitting his neighbor’s cat, scrolling through TikTok, and trying new restaurants. “I was in a bad place but we came back,” he told me. He wonders if dating apps will have a solution for singles like him. “It’s really messed up here.”