Consequently, in-real-life dating events are in vogue in the post-pandemic era. Everything from pickleball meetups to old-fashioned speed dating are all the rage (again). Newer dating apps like Thursday also make offline events core to their user experience (though they’re largely straight-focused); earlier this year, Thursday hosted their second meetup–slash–ski trip. The growth of widely promoted friend-finding apps underscores the appetite for a life actually lived offline. For example, there’s Timeleft, which matches sets of six strangers for group dinners and is open to travelers. And last year, Bumble spun off a dedicated platonic app, Bumble For Friends, which offers a premium travel mode too.
But to be sure, headlines about the death of the apps and the apps ruining travel are nearly as old as the apps themselves. (Similarly, I reported for The Washington Post back in 2018 how Grindr was “falling out of favor” following controversy after controversy. Six years later, however, the app still makes recurring appearances on my phone.) In other words, many of us complain about the apps even as we check them to see if we’ve gotten any likes.
Still, it’s not all bad
Several travelers I spoke to for this column described how their screen time can rise if they’re glued to their phones. That can quickly lead to a sense of burnout, admits London-based Freddie D. “It’s definitely true, which is why I only try to use one [app] at a time,” they say. But on solo trips, they often log on to find a potential travel buddy. Once, in Norway, Freddie got to chatting with a guy who’d never been to Bergen. “We ended up traveling there together and spent a day touring the city,” they tell me.
For solo travelers, dating apps remain one of the most convenient ways to connect with people in new destinations, says Nova Scotia–based Brandon Y. “I use dating apps when I travel because they are a great way to meet new people—friends, romantic connections, and hookups,” he says. “I can definitely see the dating-app fatigue point of view, but the possibility of meeting interesting and genuine people far outweighs the need I feel to see every museum or iconic landmark.”
These platforms are likely to continue evolving in ways that users find irritating, with many already getting swept up in the latest AI hype. The founder of Bumble said earlier this year that users might one day get AI-powered dating bots that could screen potential partners, which already sounds like more fodder for disgruntled daters online and offline. But despite all their flaws, the apps tap into a perennial human desire for connection. And they’re predicted to grow. According to data from Statista, the user base for dating apps is estimated to rise from 381 million users in 2023 to 452 million people on the apps by 2028.
That suggests in coming years, millions more people will log on to dating apps while they travel—even if it seems sure they’ll have complaints. Best case scenario: They, too, will meet an adorably cheesy Frenchman on Tinder who cups a hand to their chest, listens to their elevated pulse, and whispers, “Shh, I just want to remember your heartbeat,” as this writer once did. But at a minimum, you’ll have some stories to tell friends and astro twins over lunch.
5 tactics for traveling with the apps
“Dating apps can become a time sink just like any potentially addictive online activity,” says Stanford’s Elias Aboujaoude. If you want to manage your screen time—and guard your mental health and physical safety—it helps to have a strategy. Here are a few tactics I employ when I aim to meet people on the apps while I travel.
