Why Video Dates Might Be Here To Stay, Even After COVID

Dating has changed a lot in the age of COVID. For some people, their dating lives have creaked to a halt altogether. For others, the loneliness and uncertainty of this time have made them take dating more seriously than ever.

One potentially permanent change to dating culture? The rise of the video date.

Researchers at the lab surveyed over 5,800 people in April and May. Of those polled, 44% have been on a video date, and 52% of those people say they are likely to continue going on video dates even when they're able to meet up safely in real life.

"At the beginning of the pandemic, the Hinge Labs team spoke to users and found that most people had not tried video dating. Flash-forward a few months, and now more than a third of Hinge users have gone on a virtual date in the last week alone," Logan Ury, a dating coach and director of relationship science at Hinge Labs, tells mbg. "And they're enjoying these calls so much that a third of them last for over an hour."

There's a lot to love about video dates: They allow you to quickly get face-to-face with a potential partner and assess your chemistry with each other rather than falling into the trap of endless texting with a match from a dating app, only to realize immediately that the spark isn't there once you finally meet up IRL weeks later.

"A majority of Hinge users who have tried video chat dating tell us they want to incorporate this experience into their dating process moving forward. We believe that's because our users feel like video chat is a fun, low-pressure 'vibe check' that allows them to get a sense of their match before meeting up in person," says Ury.

Video dates also allow us to skip a lot of the more surface-level aspects of going on dates and focus almost entirely on good conversation, curiosity, and connection.

Can you actually start a real relationship just through virtual dating, though? Apparently yes: One in three people told Hinge they'd be down to be exclusive with someone they've only dated virtually, and 43% said they'd be willing to define the relationship with someone they've only gone on video dates with.

To suss out how pandemic dating has been treating people, dating coach Clara Artschwager recently spoke with several women who've found love during the pandemic. Their stories were mixed but largely promising. Not everyone knows how to make a long-distance relationship work, but the video date itself seems to be exceeding people's expectations.