Cuffing season is in full swing and 2024 is nearing its end, which means it's time for Tinder's annual Year in Swipe. Each year, the ubiquitous dating app reveals year-long trends and what they could mean for dating in the future.
Here's what defined dating in 2024, according to Tinder, and what may be in store in 2025:
Tinder's top 2024 dating trends
This year, "pickleball" was the fastest-growing mention in people's bios (+148 percent). This is followed by "freak" (+118 percent) — likely users asking for someone to match their freak. "Deserve" rounded out the top 3 with +95 percent mentions.
Tinder users stated their top communication style was "better in person," followed by being a "big-time texter," then "phone caller," then "bad texter." "Video chatter" ranked at the bottom.
In terms of love styles (similar to the love languages), the top 5 from highest to lowest were: time together, touch, thoughtful gestures, compliments, and presents.
Tinder also measured the fastest-growing emojis on the app: the pink bow, cloud, backpack, palm, and owl.
Tinder's 2025 dating predictions
Singes are "loud looking"
"Looking for..." was Tinder's top bio mention in 2024, according to global data from Tinder bios, descriptors, and interests from January 1 to October 1 this year. Despite Tinder's longtime reputation as a "hookup app," insights from the app's Green Flags study show that's not always the case: 53 percent of men want a romantic relationship, and 68 percent of women want the same.
Singles online and off are being more up-front about what they want, Tinder CMO Melissa Hobley told Mashable at the app's Year in Swipe event. And it's not hookups or penpals they're looking for, from what Hobley observed. "I'm seeing — I think a lot of people seeing this growing frequency of people say, 'Do not talk to me if you're not looking for something serious.'"
Manifesting "kiss-met" love
Manifest is the Cambridge Dictionary's word of the year — and young singles are proving that true. Nearly 20 percent of 4,000 18-30 year-old daters surveyed said they're creating vision boards to manifest their ideal relationship in 2025. Tinder introduced an interactive vision board tool so users can create one in-app and share it with friends and family.
Tinder predicts that daters will "embrace the magic of the unplanned" in 2025, moving away from strict "rules" (and, hopefully, icks).
"Micro-connecting" is in
Tinder also predicts the rise of "nano-ships" and "micro-connections" — such as good morning texts (textuationships, naturally) or stealing a glance at a cute stranger on the subway (eyecontactship). While it may seem silly, Bumble also discussed micro-mance behaviors in its 2025 dating trends forecast — so there might be something to this.
Both apps also discussed renewed optimism in their users, which they would need in the next year considering daters are getting sick of dating apps. Around a quarter of surveyed singles said they're focusing on joy and positivity, and bringing an optimistic outlook to their dating life, according to that same survey of 4,000 18-30 year-olds. Bumble found that 87 percent of users experienced positives of dating this year.
"There's a lot of benefit in getting pleasure out of those micro-moments," Hobley told Mashable.
Daters are streamlining their rosters
A quarter of surveyed singles are choosing fewer, more meaningful connections to keep their energy and excitement for dating alive, Tinder states. This may be the result of what apps predicted during the height of the pandemic: Daters will become more intentional and seek deeper connections.
Daters also aren't deciding their rosters alone: They're enlisting the help of friends and the stars. This year, 60 percent of singles turned to friends for dating advice, and almost 20 percent asked a friend to pre-screen their date by checking out their social media profiles. Nearly half of singles said they plan to rely on their friends to navigate the dating world next year (Bumble also found the same, in terms of guy friends helping women in their lives).
Astrology is also influencing how singles choose dates. Nearly 40 percent of singles said that "astrology love predictions" will shape who they date next year. (Virgos, Geminis, Leos, Scopios, and Sagittariuses received the most "likes" of all the Zodiac signs in 2024.)
Golden Retrievers wanted
Nearly 45 percent of singles want a "Golden Retriever" type in 2025: loyal, friendly, energetic, and optimistic. Here are some other qualities singles are prioritizing next year:
Trustworthiness (40 percent)
Physical attraction (35 percent)
Shared values (31 percent)
Emotional availability (30 percent)
Shared interests (28 percent)
Here are the top deal-breakers:
Bad hygiene (50 percent)
Rudeness (44 percent)
Talking too much about an ex (34 percent)
"Singles are embracing intentionality in their dating lives — being upfront about what they want and refusing to settle," Hobley said in the announcement. "These trends are all about empowering choice — whether it's confidently stating your needs while Loud Looking, savoring serendipitous moments through Kiss-mets, or finding meaning in micro-connections with Nano-ships."
Dating app predictions amid a dating app bust
Tinder released these predictions soon after UK comms regulator Ofcom reported that 600,000 users left Tinder in the last year. This isn't unique to the apps, as other major players Hinge, Bumble, and Grindr have all declining user bases.
Hobley told Mashable that the app plans to continue to address "perception challenges" on Tinder. The app has long been known as a hookup app, despite relationships of all kinds forming there. "Relationships are started every three seconds on Tinder," she said, referring to a survey of dating app behaviors in 2023. "If you're LGBTQ, you probably come out first on Tinder... So many relationships are starting here, whatever your relationship is that you want — short term, long term, meeting the parents, getting married, never getting married, exploring queerness, whatever, whatever those are" can be found on Tinder, and she wants Tinder to be loud about that in 2025.
But, also, Hobley is hesitant to say Tinder "isn't just for hookups." "I grew up in an era [where] slut shaming was the worst thing. Whatever you want, awesome. You want to get laid, great, I got you. You want forever, I got you. You want something in between, I got you."
UPDATE: Dec. 4, 2024, 9:34 a.m. EST This article has been updated with quotes from an interview with Tinder CMO Melissa Hobley.
