Dating Updated

With millennials and Gen Z complaining of dating app burnout, new features and safety hacks are being rolled out to lure them back

- SONALI ACHARJEE

Aditi Singh, a 32-year-old bank employee from Mumbai, has been on dating apps since she was 25. "It was a dream...you could connect so easily with new people...and eventually find the perfect life partner." Seven years later, Aditi is not so sure. All she has had are casual flings. "So many times, guys just vanished after four-five meetings, or ended the relationship. I have wasted seven years on pointless hook-ups and now my parents are putting pressure on me to get married." Aditi is experiencing what many are calling 'dating app burnout' or 'dating app fatigue' among the millennials and Gen-Z.

When they started, dating apps offered a rare freedom to Indian youngsters to find like-minded people on their own, away from the pressures and expectations of family. An algorithm threw up the most suitable matches for you, and you could have a date for the evening with the swipe of a finger. They also became a rare lifeline in the years of the Covid lockdown, when restrictions on movement did not come in the way of interaction online. No wonder data aggregator statista.​com found India to be the second-largest market for dating apps in the world in 2024, generating $323 million (Rs 2,700 crore) in revenue.

But with the highs have also come the lows-the skewed gender ratio, fake pictures and profiles, ghosting (the act of suddenly ending all communication), complications over relationship expectations, stalking and scams. Suddenly, the number of people who cannot bear to swipe right has begun to grow. In a 2023 survey of 2,700 Gen Z and millennials in India by dating app Happn's, 36 per cent of the respondents reported experiencing dating app burnout.

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