Dating apps are in trouble. Here are the connections people are searching for.

Dating apps are facing a point of reckoning. Bumble is the latest to lose its wings. Its share price dropped 29% after it slashed its revenue outlook for the rest of the year. The stock is down around 65% in the past year, while Match Group, which owns Tinder, Match.com, OkCupid, and others, is down about 24%.

Are daters just sick of swiping? In one survey , Gen Z much preferred meeting someone in real life than online. But is that reality ? How can companies adjust to keep growing customers?

For more on what people are really searching for when they swipe, Straight Arrow News interviewed Liesel Sharabi, an associate professor and director of the Relationships and Technology Lab at Arizona State University.

The following transcript has been edited for length and clarity. Watch the full interview in the video above.

Simone Del Rosario: This isn't the death of dating apps, right?

Liesel Sharabi: No, I don't think it is, but I do think that there is a lot of growing frustration in this space. But at the same time, we still have people using them, right? So I think this is really an opportunity to reflect and ask ourselves what's working well and also what can we do to make this a better experience for people going forward?

Simone Del Rosario: Is the growth and the surge that these dating companies have seen, could this be tied back to a post-pandemic life — with 2021 being a big boost for them — and a need to adjust to what the new reality is now, where people are out living their life?

Liesel Sharabi: Sure. During the pandemic, people spent a lot of time at home. We had a lot of people using dating apps, trying dating apps for the first time. But I think when people started to get back out there and things started to open up, there was really this urge to connect face-to-face. And so I think that some of this is definitely coming off of a period of time where people were feeling very isolated. And so now I think they're hungry for a face-to-face interaction in a lot of ways.

Simone Del Rosario: What are the newer — or older — ways the dating pool is hoping to meet today?

Liesel Sharabi: I think it's really interesting, especially when you look at Gen Z, because they are now younger than a lot of online dating platforms. They've really grown up in this environment. And I think for them, they're starting to ask themselves, 'Okay, what else is out there? Beyond dating apps, how else can I go about meeting people?'

So you hear from a lot of them that they're really excited to connect in person. And they're looking for other opportunities. And I think in some ways, that just has to do with the fact that the apps have been around for a really long time. They are not the only way to meet people and I think there's some exploration happening there as well.

Simone Del Rosario: How can the companies behind these apps, behind online dating, transform in an age where people are hungry for in-person meetings?

Liesel Sharabi: It's a great question. And there really hasn't been, in my view, a lot of big innovation in the dating app space in the past decade. I think for some people, they've been on the apps for a while, it's starting to get a little bit stale and so they're looking for something different.

I think as we look to the future and AI and how that might be integrated into the online dating experience, there's a lot of room to change and to make improvements to make the experience more beneficial and more exciting for people.

But I think the way that it is currently, people have a lot of options. They're spending a lot of time swiping. It's not necessarily leading to the outcomes that they want. And so I think that's where some of this fatigue and this burnout is coming from.

Simone Del Rosario: Online dating used to be a website that people would go to and pay for when they were really serious about finding someone; when they weren't meeting the people they wanted to meet in real life and they were really hungry and searching for that connection. The swiping culture doesn't bring that same mentality to the table. Is that an area for improvement?

Liesel Sharabi: Absolutely. And some of it is about people's goals, too. Not everyone who's on a dating app is actually looking for relationships. Some people aren't even necessarily looking for an in-person date. They just want to match and message and have fun.

I think if you are somebody who's serious, if you're getting matched with those sorts of people, that can also be a pretty frustrating experience because if your goals aren't compatible, then it's not really going to be able to go anywhere.

I think helping people match with partners that are more aligned with what they're looking for, making sure that they're on the same page, is really important. And I think for a lot of people, it's hard. It's hard to know what somebody's motivations are and why they signed up in the first place.

Simone Del Rosario: Is that an area where AI can help these companies improve their product to try to sort through the pool a little bit better for people?

Liesel Sharabi: I think a big part of the fatigue that people are experiencing is that they're overwhelmed with choice. There are a lot of options, but trying to find quality options and the people that they're looking for can be really tough. So I think that there's room to improve the matchmaking process. And that's a place where AI could end up being really valuable going forward.

Simone Del Rosario: I'm wondering if online dating companies need to branch into in-person functions. Do they need to have a level beyond the online?

Liesel Sharabi: There are startups that are also doing this currently, trying to find a way to help people bypass some of the back-and-forth messaging that they're spending a lot of time on and getting them out there, just meeting people face-to-face.

I think that's really important. And I think especially with AI — people are using it to help them create profiles, to write messages, they're relying on ChatGPT already — I anticipate that's going to be even more of a thing going forward.

It does make me wonder, is that going to compel people to then meet face-to-face because then you know who you're actually interacting with? So it'll be really interesting to see how it plays out.

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