The metaverse has immense potential in the future of virtual dating.
The internet took a giant leap forward with web3. This tech provided the gateway for the metaverse to become a tangible thing you can participate in.
The metaverse became increasingly mainstream over the past few years, opening up new avenues for an already booming industry – virtual dating.
It usually involves using VR (virtual reality) headsets and gloves. These devices help you view and interact with others or digital-based content in the space.
A New Way To Date
Imagine you’re getting ready to meet up with someone for a first date, but you don’t need to think about your wardrobe at all. You’ll be heading to a virtual bar or out for a stroll through an entirely digital mythical forest landscape using your avatars, and you’ll have already dressed them for the occasion.
Many big tech companies have ventured into this virtual space and begun to play with augmented reality, using the technology to help bring people together.
VR dating in the metaverse can only get better as advancements occur within the digital realm. The traditional model of dating apps – whereby users have little information to go off other than photos, text, and maybe a couple of social media profiles – is limited and very outdated. For instance, communication generally only goes as far as instant messaging and video chats.
There are a large number of major advantages with the metaverse over the internet – one is immersive, whereas, with the other one, you’re just looking at something on a screen.
With dating, you get an incredible amount of information about how someone feels about you without them saying a word. The multisensory experience – the ability to physically engage with a virtual environment – will set the metaverse apart from traditional dating apps.
The internet is currently nothing more than a two-dimensional world that we can peer into and interact with through our little glass screens. The metaverse will be a 3D universe that will much more closely resemble the one we are living in now. But the space will be populated by digital avatars and will be constructed of ones and zeros rather than atoms.
It allows users to convey body language and eliminates the need to meet strangers in person on a first date — which invariably brings some degree of risk.
Metaverse Dating Platforms
Nevermet
If you have a virtual reality headset, you can utilize it in Nevermet’s dating experiences.
To make a profile, simply use the filters Nevermet provides to give your age and gender and other specifics you might want to include. Then, after you have created an account, you can swipe accordingly through the various matches it provides.
It works very much like Tinder – one of the biggest dating apps. But Nevermet, however, stands out from other dating apps with one feature. Instead of real-life pictures, you use images of your virtual self.
You can display pictures and videos of your avatar on your profile for potential partners to view your virtual persona. The voice and style of your avatar will play a part in others judging whether to swipe on or select you as a match. There’s no room for human faces on the platform.
At the very least, the platform will provide an interesting experience. At most, you may end up finding your next life-long partner.
Planet Theta
Planet Theta gives users a way of meeting new people in the metaverse and connecting. The platform offers you the experience of what it calls “social VR”.
If you find someone you like enough to ask them out and spend time alone together, you can go on a virtual date and take your pick from a vast array of different places to explore. For example, you could go to an enchanted forest, a bar, a club, or a coffee house.
You don’t need to use a VR headset to try it, as you can download the desktop version of this metaverse dating app on Steam. But VR headsets are supported on Planet Theta for that fully immersive dating experience. The range of compatible headsets includes Oculus Quest, Oculus Quest 2, HTC Vive, HTC Vive Cosmos, HTC Vive Pro, HTC Vive Pro 2, and many more.
On Planet Theta, participants will be able to buy NFTs (non-fungible tokens), which they can then display for the purpose of attracting potential partners.
Match
Match Group, Tinder’s parent company, has been investing heavily in its transition to the metaverse.
The dating platform Match.com has been around since 1995. Since its inception, Match has increased its reach greatly, making itself widely available across many countries in different languages. The platform now plans to continue to grow with the times yet again, throwing its hat in the ring of AR (augmented reality) and VR dating.
Tinder recently announced that it is looking to implement AR and VR elements within its dating services.
Tinder has also recently begun testing “Tinder Coins” for some European markets. The company plans to make them available to users as a means of paying for in-app features like Boost and SuperLike.
Furthermore, the company has just recently acquired Hyperconnect. This South Korean technology company has begun testing a VR-based dating platform known as Single Town. Single Town will allow people – through the use of their avatars – to move around and engage with others by audio in various virtual locations.
These platforms provide a glimpse into how the metaverse experience could be applicable to virtual dating, and are the sort of innovations that will help the space evolve as we enter the next phase of web3.
