Is Facebook good enough to beat dating apps like Tinder? With over 200 million singles already on the social media platform, it sure does has the biggest member base of any dating website out there. Hoping that it can help all those people to find partners on the social media platform, Facebook recently launched their dating service in Colombia and is already aiming to test the service in other markets real soon.
So if you are wondering how Facebook dating service works, check out our little review below.
Opting in Facebook Dating Is Easy
Getting into the dating service by Facebook is pretty easy. Once the social media giant launches the service in your area, you’ll see a notification on top of your feed. You can simply click on ‘Learn more’ to opt-in for the service. You can also opt-in by tapping a small heart icon next to the search bar on your app.
Either of the options will immediately take you to the ‘dating home’ and from there you can start building your separate dating profile. Rest assured, this profile will be exclusive and hidden from your normal Facebook profile and friends.
So Who Else Will Be Able to See Your Dating Profile on Facebook?
So far, only the people who have opted into the dating service by the social media giant will be able to view your exclusive dating profile. It will never show on the normal newsfeed of Facebook. In other words, all of your friends on Facebook will not be able to see your dating profile unless they opt-in. Facebook has confirmed that it will also never suggest your current friends as a possible match.
But if you want the service to suggest your friends as a match, you can turn this feature on in the privacy settings of your profile.
Facebook has added another layer of security by disabling screenshots past the registration page of the dating service. When anyone checks your dating profile, they’ll only see the basics first such as your name, age, photo, and current city. You can allow Facebook to let others view your education and a few other biographical information on your profile too.
How Can You Set up Your Facebook Dating Profile?
Creating your profile after you have opt-in the Facebook dating service is pretty simple. Just follow these steps below:
- Step 1 – Choose your gender when prompted
- Step 2 – Choose which gender(s) you want to be matched with when prompted
- Step 3 – Confirm where you currently live or let location services do the job for you
- Step 4 – Upload a unique photo for your dating profile
- Step 5 – Setup your profile picture until you are ready and confirm and save
Now simply tap the ‘confirm’ button at the bottom of the screen and you are good to go with your new Facebook dating profile.
Just remember, any changes you make to your dating profile will never affect your regular Facebook profile and vice versa. So be open about it as much as you want to. This also means that if you delete a photo somewhere else on Facebook, it will still remain on your Facebook dating profile. And if you delete a photo from your FB dating profile, it will remain anywhere else you have uploaded or shared it.
And if you delete your entire Facebook dating profile, nothing will be deleted from your actual Facebook profile. Nothing that you have shared on your actual profile will get affected if you decide to remove your dating profile.
Next up, you must specify your match criteria in the dating settings so FB has an idea who to match you with.
You May Also Like: Our list of Tinder openers.
So Where Does Facebook Pick Matches From?
Since Facebook dating service is new and has only been launched in a limited capacity, once you complete your dating profile, you’ll only see a message saying ‘you’re set for now’. This is because the social media giant is currently waiting to see how many members will actually sign up for the service in each area before suggesting any matches to people. After all, who are they going to match you with if enough people haven’t signed up with the service?
Once the dating service by Facebook is fully up and running in your designated area, this is how you’ll be able to use it to find perfect matches.
First you’ll have to go to your ‘Facebook dating home page’ just like you would go to your actual profile home to start an activity. From here on, you’ll be given a list of things to do. You’ll also be suggested a couple of groups to join if you think they interest you.
Unlocking one of the events on your dating profile or simply joining a group will make your dating profile visible to other group members or people attending the event you have unlocked. The system will make your profile visible to those who match your preferences.
The Facebook matching system will consider your location, common interests, dating preferences, and mutual friends before it matches you with someone else. You’ll also be provided with match options when you tap ‘see suggested matches’. From there, you can check the matches full dating profile if you tap on their profile picture. You will also be able to see any mutual friends of yours with them.
If someone catches your interest, you can simply tap the ‘interested’ icon at the bottom of the profile picture. This will bring up a text box where you can write a message to them.
The message exchange is currently limited to only text, meaning that you won’t be able to send any of the members a photo or links. Users are also currently limited to sending a single message in the start. Your conversation with a member on dating service by Facebook will be separate from any conversations you are having on WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger.
If the person you messaged decides to respond, the conversation will show up in the conversation section of Facebook dating. Simply navigate to your dating profile and you can see which conversations are currently active by tapping the ‘conversations’ button on the top of the page.
Note: We like to focus on hook up websites, but we know many people use mainstream dating apps for hooking up. If you want a more in your face dating app than Facebook, try Fuckbook.
When Is Facebook Dating Officially Launching Worldwide?
Up till now, the FB dating service has only launched in Colombia. Other test locations are coming soon. Right now, Facebook is also not charging for its dating service but it is expected when it is fully launched, there may be some charges involved.
The people at Facebook have said that they were thinking about this dating service for many years and started working on it in late 2017. They have admitted that people are already using the normal Facebook platform to meet new people and date them. With the new service, it will be a lot safer to find dates on the platform.
What are industry experts saying about Facebook’s venture into dating?
With Facebook being the biggest social media platform in the world, there is no surprise that it created a lot of shock and buzz in the industry. And as you might have thought, the reactions have been mixed so far.
Some of the experts are worried that Facebook dating service will open up a whole new way for catfishers and romance scammers to exploit the service. Since the dating service by Facebook is going to be used by people who are even in their 40s and a little less familiar with the system may be at risk.
A former Facebook spam manager turned ‘trust and safety architect’, Kevin Lee, recently told the Washington Post that the new dating service by Facebook could potentially expose its users to financial fraud by catfishers and romance scammers.
Romance scams are already on the rise as revealed by the FBI. At least 15,000 such cases were reported in 2016 which rose from 2,500 in 2015. And these are just the reported cases we are talking about. These scams have so far cost the victims over 230 million dollars.
According to research conducted by Lee, the majority of people who fall for such scams are women, mostly women who are aged because they are in a vulnerable state of mind because of a broken marriage or other problems in life.
Other IT experts can’t figure out how Facebook will keep its user’s data private given how bad Facebook was hit recently when Mark Zuckerberg himself had to testify in from of the Congress.
Other experts, such as Justin Bookman also weighed in on the dating service and said that Facebook knows a lot about its members than it actually tells. In other words, they are collecting information about members that they are not supposed to. With the dating service, people will reveal a lot more sensitive stuff about them. How is FB going to police that? Will, they put in enough resources into safety? Or will they once again ignore the safety of its users by making engagement their top priority?
Another expert, Felicia Cravens who has helped track down several fake Facebook accounts via a Facebook page called ‘Unfakery’ has admitted that FB’s new dating service will take over things fairly quickly. Since people are already scamming others using the normal social media platform, will it be even safe for people to join and reveal sensitive data on the dating service?
Fraud and privacy concerns apart, there is also a major concern of who you are actually being matched to on FB dating. As far as the algorithm goes, you are matched with people having common interests and other relatable things, but does that mean you just have to date them? How is this going to change people’s mind?
Assistant professor at CSU Fullerton, Chelsea Reynolds, who studies online dating revealed that people who match as a result of being in the same professional groups actually do not want to date within those circles.
For example, if you are using your FB profile to build your professional visibility, you are going to be in a group of people with professors, media practitioners, and activists. Will you be interested in dating in this professional circle? Likely not.
While all of these concerns are only speculations by experts, we’ll just have to wait and see how Facebook dating actually turns out when it launches worldwide. For now, if you are in Columbia, give it a shot!
About Owen Cashner
Owen Cashner considers himself a professional dater and amateur comedian. His passion for writing led him to document his experiences using online dating websites. All opinions expressed on this website are to further educate men on the landscape of dating. Use this information to your advantage and conquer the dating world.
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