Key Takeaways
- After succeeding as an IRL dating service, Like Love is taking an unconventional approach to growth by expanding into an app, balancing humanity with tech.
- Like Love, It’s Just Lunch, and Closer are just a few of the diverse companies that aim to revitalize in-person socializing while harnessing the accessibility of tech.
- As swipe fatigue grows, daters crave the type of IRL yet tech-enabled connections facilitated by Like Love, It’s Just Lunch, and other platforms.
A new generation of dating services are embarking on a new (and old) frontier: IRL dating events and face-to-face matchmaking that leaves swiping in the dust.
By now, we know that daters are far more excited over the prospect of in-person connections than those formed on dating apps. Business of Apps put the overall user retention rate of dating apps at just 3.3% in 2024.
Apps just aren’t compelling users the way they used to, leaving a large swath of singles caught between two worlds: the online dating world they grew up with, and the unfamiliar world where people meet face to face.
The friendship app Befriend found that 79% of Gen Z and 80% of millennials have suffered from swipe fatigue over the last three years. This fatigue will take more than a digital detox to overcome: “It’s an erosion of confidence and a challenge to the very value proposition of digital dating brands,” according to Befriend.
When facing such doubt, what’s a dating app to do?
Dating services already take a more well-rounded approach to dating by working directly with clients throughout each stage of the dating process.
Now, the dating service Like Love has followed other IRL companies in announcing a new venture that puts the real world and the dating app world on a collision course.
Where Real-World Connection Meets Tech-Enabled Access
Like Love calls itself a “community-driven dating company known for bringing singles together in real life.” The company prides itself on “flipping the script on swipe culture” by doing a bulk of its matchmaking through IRL singles events instead of via an app or algorithm.
But now, Like Love is expanding into the online space with a new app that it says will blend “modern technology with human connection.” It’s not just about making connections easier, quicker, and more accessible, though these are undoubtedly factors.
Co-Founder and CEO Kristina Swift put it like this: “We’ve seen firsthand that people are craving more than endless swiping … They want real connection, community, and support — and they want it in a way that fits their lifestyle and budget. This app brings all of that together in one place.”
Like Love helps people organize their real-world social calendar, gauge compatibility with matches, RSVP for events, and even create their own dating activities. The company’s transition from a real-world dating service into an app intends to create more value for the dater, not less.
“The app marks a major evolution for the brand, transforming it from an events company into a full dating ecosystem,” according to Like Love.
Like Love takes a seemingly backwards approach to modern-day dating by starting in the real world and then expanding onto a dating app. It makes sure it can establish strong in-person connections for its clients before expanding into the app world. And believe it or not, this unconventional approach has been used successfully before.
Turning Screens Into Launchpads Instead of Barriers
Like Love, It’s Just Lunch, Closer: These distinct companies all respond to the same demand for fulfilling connections that take place offline, without the pesky blue-lit smartphone screen as a barrier.
The large-scale matchmaking service It’s Just Lunch, which launched over 30 years ago, describes itself as “a personalized matchmaking service” that uses tech as a tool for growth, not as a replacement for real-world connection.
“Instead of spending hours searching through online profiles or swiping screens, you will spend time on face to face dates,” according to It’s Just Lunch. The site uses four buzzy keywords: “It’s personal, it’s private, it’s effective, and it’s offline.”
The event-organizing service Closer also prioritizes face-to-face interactions over online connections. Though not strictly a dating service, Closer organizes friendship and singles events with the hope that Gen Z will experience memorable, real-life meet-cutes.
Closer even highlights the benefits of people — not algorithms — taking the lead. “Closer is a growing network of hosted experiences designed to make it easy to connect,” according to the site. “Good plans. Great people. Just enough structure to make it easy to dive deep.”
The Future of Connection Lies Between Tech and Humanity
This doesn’t mean that dating services should throw their routers out the window, however; they seem to see the most success when human instinct and tech join forces.
The sweet spot seems to lie between extremes, where tech-enabled convenience is paired with meaningful human insight. “The next frontier in digital romance won’t be conquered by ‘bigger’ or ‘smarter’ algorithms, but by technologies that go smaller, deeper, and more human,” Befriend notes.
It’s Just Lunch’s longevity and Like Love and Closer’s progress point to a growing demand for dating services that put real, intentional, and personalized meetups ahead of those facilitated by an algorithm.
A majority of Gen Z and Millennials agree that swipe fatigue is an ongoing problem. The path forward — real-world events — may seem like a step back into the past, but Like Love and its contemporaries prove that daters respond positively to dating events that are supported, but not controlled, by tech.
