The coronavirus has marked a before and after in the way of flirting. The restrictions imposed by the pandemic closed bars, nightclubs and complicated dinners between groups of friends. Throughout these two years it has been almost impossible to meet a person without a mask or without a negative antigen test. Social isolation has indirectly led to a rise in dating apps, which have become the only option for flirting. Thus, in the last two years there has been an increase in the use of dating apps.
In fact, before the pandemic broke out, the Internet was already a meeting place for ‘singles’ and people looking to have casual encounters. As confirmed by a study published by Standford University and Arizona State University, 39% of heterosexual couples and 60% of homosexual couples met thanks to the Internet. Something that shows that in pre-pandemic times the most common way of meeting other people was already through a mobile device. According to the American publication Fast Company, in 1995 only 2% of couples had met through some digital platform.
Verification and control
Badoo, which was founded in 2006 and is now part of Bumble, has been committed to safety since its inception. Thus, being one of the first national dating applications, Badoo has been updating its application over the years to adapt to the needs of its users. From offering them the possibility of finding someone around the corner through GPS technology that allows them to find a partner near the place where they are, to including a video call option during confinement and, of course, security implementations that allow users to focus on enjoying themselves without worries. Thus, the application has enabled three simple ways to check and verify that the person with whom you are chatting is who they say they are.
One of the simplest and most recommended options for the application is the profile verification. To do this, users must enter their profile and then go to the ‘verify profile’ option or press the verification label in the form of a blue circle, where the user is asked to take a ‘selfie’ by making a gesture that matches the one displayed on the screen. Once Badoo’s moderator team manually reviews and accepts the request, a verification badge appears on the person’s profile next to their name, showing that they are a verified user. In addition, with the aim of reinforcing its security, in October 2021 the application launched new updates focused on the creation of a security Center with guides and help lines so that users can have appointments in a totally safe way.
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On the other hand, Badoo has implemented a system, called Offensive Message Detectorcapable of detecting any text that can be perceived as rude, abusive, homophobic or discriminatory. In this way, when a member receives a message within Badoo that may be harmful or detrimental to the reader, a pop-up message is sent encouraging the person to confirm if they are comfortable with the language used and, if If not, it is recommended that you report the conversation directly from the popup. This pop-up makes it easy to report the profile and proceed to be investigated and blocked, if so.
Thus, thanks to the work of applications such as Badoo, more and more people decide to find love on digital platforms without any fear or prejudice.