Key Takeaways
- Gen Z may value emotional vulnerability more than other generations, but that doesn’t mean they have the skills to accurately gauge some forms of chemistry.
- Dating platforms can meet the user’s needs by offering in-person dating opportunities, allowing daters to complete vibe checks earlier in the process.
- The trend toward vibe-checks suggests that Gen Z daters would respond better to human matchmaking than data-based matchmaking.
Ask any 20-something about the state of dating right now, and chances are they’ll say some variation of, “The vibes are off.”
It’s this generation’s way of raising the alarm on modern dating culture. Swiping has gone stale, but IRL connections are intimidating. Algorithmic matchmaking no longer packs the same punch, with Gen Z reverting back to vibe and energy-based connections.
This is not only a sign of swipe fatigue, but of modern daters relying more on their own intuition to gauge chemistry.
In-person connections are typically quicker and more accurate because daters have the opportunity to pick up on those tiny idiosyncratic details that often get overlooked online but can make all the difference: eye contact, scent, sound, banter — chemistry. Or as the kids say, “vibes.”
Forty-two percent of surveyed singles told Plenty of Fish that they’ve fallen for someone outside of their usual “type” because they gave them a chance based on good vibes alone.
Rachel DeAlto, Plenty of Fish’s Resident Dating Expert, predicted “daters in 2026 to prioritize clarity, honesty, and real connection over outdated rules and surface-level checklists.”
This puts data-led dating platforms in a tight spot — and suggests that human dating professionals, like matchmakers and dating coaches, could be the keys to bridging the growing gap between platforms and daters.
Do Vibes Really Matter More Than Data?
These days, emotional intelligence matters more to Gen Z than typical matchmaking metrics, like income and occupation.
Match Group CEO Spencer Rascoff tried to explain Gen Z’s preference for vibes-based rather than data-based decision-making. “The high pressure kind of product offering of looking at a photo and judging it— that is cringy for a lot of Gen Z people,” Rascoff told The Wall Street Journal.
Gen Z wants “to vibe their way through meeting people” because the age-old swiping process is now “cringe” — perhaps because Gen Z’s passion for authenticity makes judging a single photo feel like an ineffective, and even unethical, way to gauge chemistry, said Rascoff.
In 2022, a Hinge survey found that 93% of daters value emotional vulnerability in a partner, and 61% said emotional vulnerability was more important to them than attractiveness, income, or height.
It’s clear that Gen Z daters crave the type of human connection they may not have experienced as digital natives. But just because they value emotional vulnerability doesn’t mean they know how to ask for it. The same Hinge survey found that only 32% of people allow themselves to actually be vulnerable on first dates.
It seems that being a digital native is a double-edged sword. While some Gen Z daters crave the IRL connections they missed out on growing up, others aren’t quite ready to leave the digital nest.
So, they depend on vague concepts like “vibes” because they don’t know how, exactly, to put their emotional needs into words.
Dating platforms have an opportunity to combine what they do best — matchmaking based on data — with Gen Z’s need for emotional education. Matches based on behavioral signals or conversations, for example, may be more impactful than filters or even photos.
When Dating Platforms Combine Data with Vibe-Checks
Platforms can meld data with humanity to create a middle ground for users who prefer online dating to IRL dating. The best way to do this? Making connections happen faster on the apps, and offering concrete human-led emotional guidance.
Success often depends on creating the illusion of vibe-based matchmaking; in reality, data and metrics, such as ideal income, preferred hobbies, etc., are still necessary for platforms to use during the algorithmic matchmaking process.
Ilana Dunn, host of the Seeing Other People podcast and former Hinge content lead, told Fortune that the future of dating apps depends on their ability to adapt to the outside world. Simply “[coming] up with more ways to [allow] people to assess chemistry” is only half the battle, she said.
“Unless they are really pushing people to meet in real life by maybe creating more in-person activations and events where people can assess, ‘Oh, is there a vibe here?’ I don’t know that they will make the comeback to being as big as they once were,” Dunn explained.
In other words, platforms must expand their expertise beyond the online world if they want to remain relevant to a Gen Z audience.
In-person dating events sponsored by dating apps — speed dating, singles mixers, or hobby-based meet-ups, for example — extends brand recognition to the outside world while meeting the user’s need to gauge chemistry IRL.
Feeld, Bumble, and Hinge have all hosted IRL events aimed at bringing users together, with the latter even investing $1 million in real-life events in 2025.
‘Vibes-First’ Approach Drives Interest in Human Experts
If Gen Z is leaning toward vague, intangible definitions of chemistry, then platforms will need to find a way to make these intangibles, well, tangible. The key could be bringing humans back into the picture.
Daters who are frustrated with data-led apps may feel more comfortable engaging with real-life dating experts, like matchmakers and dating coaches. After all, only a human can understand the intangible allure of a “good vibe” and the dread that accompanies a “bad vibe.”
Perhaps this explains why the matchmaking service Three Day Rule reportedly saw a 400% surge in Gen Z clients in 2025.
“I do think that there is a certain lack of community and vulnerability in Gen Z,” matchmaker Maria Avgitidis of Agape Match told DatingNews. She mirrored Rascoff’s sentiments, telling us how Gen Z is “allergic to cringe”.
And yet, she said, “[Gen Z daters] really value deep authenticity, and I can see why matchmaking might be a solution for them.”
Bumble, too, has picked up on Gen Z’s preference for real-world expertise. In 2025, the app launched Advice Hub, which provides real advice from very human (and not AI generated) dating experts as part of Bumble’s goal to “[blend] technology with human insight.”
This blend of humanity and tech could be exactly what dating platforms need to survive. It allows daters to gauge vibes quickly, but also ensures that Gen Z’s “vague” definitions of chemistry are finally supported by real-life expertise.
