Millions of people use dating apps every day to meet, talk, and fall in love with other users. Ensuring users are able to do this safely is a serious responsibility, and dating apps have developed a variety of features designed to keep these users safe. 

Dating App Features That Keep You Safe:

Thanks to the internet, people can now meet each other easier than ever. 

However, when online, people can sometimes pretend to be someone they aren’t. 

Using fake pictures is most common, known as ‘catfishing’. This trend has been around since the very beginning of the internet, but now, new technology is making it impossible for people to pretend to be someone they’re not. 

Badoo, the world’s largest dating network, is continuing its mission to put their users’ experience at the forefront of online dating with its "Selfie Request" - a feature intended to help eliminate catfishing and make online dating safer.

The selfie feature allows users to request a photo after they have received an initial message to confirm that their potential match is genuine and using a real photo. According to Pew Research Center, 54 percent of online daters have felt that someone misrepresented themselves on their profile. 

“Badoo has been around for over 10 years, so they have the industry’s deepest insights and experience. They are continuously aiming to solve major challenges in the dating space around various issues such as safety and security. They’ve spoken to many women to find out what they really want from a dating platform, and the two things that repeatedly surface as top priorities are safety and efficiency. Features such as photo verification, social accounts and now selfie request only help improve safety,” says dating expert Joey Hadfield.

In addition to Photo Verification, which already has over 100,000 users verifying their profiles every day, Badoo has also introduced the option for users to request and share their verified social media accounts within the platform. This allows users more control over what they share about their personal lives online. 

Badoo’s selfie and social media security announcements follow the launch of Photo Verification and Videos, which helps users ensure that there’s only real people on the platform.

• Videos

Video chat allows for both people to ensure they’re talking to a real person, someone they can trust and potentially build a relationship with. 

Obviously video chat works in real time to show you who the other person is, but can also give you a better understanding of who they are, how they conduct themselves, and whether the two of you might have a future together. 

Similarly to the selfie request, if someone seems hesitant to show themselves, it might be a red flag that they’re not who they say they are.

Safety features will never be able to replicate your own intuition: if someone makes you uncertain or uncomfortable, you shouldn’t continue talking to them. 

However, there are some new safety features that can proactively protect you from others’ actions.

• Private Detector

Unfortunately, it’s not unheard of that dating app users can sometimes be exposed to unwanted indecent images. 

Certain apps, like Badoo and Bumble, are striving to eliminate this through innovative new features that automatically detect and report this behaviour. 

An AI system present in the app can detect an inappropriate image in real-time, and will immediately blur it out. Users can then choose to accept it, delete it, or report it. 

This revolutionary feature is only possible thanks to pioneering new technology developed by Magic Lab, the group that owns and operates both Badoo and Bumble. 

Bumble’s CEO, Whitney Wolfe Herd, has spoken to US lawmakers about changing the law to include additional protection for online interactions. 

It’s encouraging to see those in power taking online safety seriously, as online dating is only growing in popularity. 

• Blocking

The block feature allows you to immediately cease contact with someone on a dating app. It’s up to you whether you block someone or not, and everyone has different criteria for what constitutes a ‘block.’ 

If someone says something that you wouldn’t tolerate in real life, you don’t have to allow it, and the block features gives you the power to end the conversation definitively. 

Depending what you’ve blocked someone for, you should consider reporting them. 

• Reporting

Reporting is one of the most basic and effective features that can keep dating app users safe. 

If anyone you have interacted with is rude, abusive, or not who they said they were, you have the power to report them to the team of moderators. From there, the company that operates whichever app you’re using will log the report, and can see if any similar reports have come up against this account in the past. 

Different companies have different policies, but all of them take reports against users seriously. 

Reporting can result in a user being banned from the app, which may be the most effective way to increase overall safety. Never be afraid to report someone, if they’ve done something to deserve it, the people who have the power to remove that person need to be aware of them. 

Anyone using a dating app has the right to do so safely, and the community using that app play a vital role in making that happen.