Dating Apps Are Using Roleplaying Games to Fix Your Rizz

Tinder, Hinge, and Bumble, and Grindr are rolling out scenario-based training, AI, and other tools to address their users’ lack of romantic experience.

In September 2023, Adam Raines made a Reddit post revealing what feels like a near-universal problem for singles: his dating app conversations are painfully boring.

Attached to the post, titled “Sometimes, texting on dating apps feelings (sic) like hitting your head against a brick wall,” is a screenshot of a bone-dry Tinder conversation between himself and one of his matches, in which Raines’ curiosity is met with short, dead-ended answers.

“The vast majority of my online dating interactions have been like that,” says Raines, 25, a gay man living in the UK who asked to use a pseudonym to protect his privacy.

Many users in the thread echoed his sentiment and offered explanations or theories as to why conversations on dating apps ...