In the last couple of years, the owners of dating services have realized that without adding new features, they simply cannot meet the needs of their audience. Everyone is quite frankly tired of swipes, odd pair selection algorithms, all kinds of personality tests, and the rest. Users just want to communicate with interesting people and make promising new acquaintances!

It isn’t a surprise that recently many dating sites and applications have begun to focus on video communication — adding online video chats and video streams to offer their audience a completely new communication experience. It should be said that this has produced excellent results.

Video chat and live streaming — not the same thing

The video chat feature in an online dating app is nothing new. During the pandemic, when the demand for video dates increased, video chat features were added to their applications by almost all popular dating platforms: Hinge, Tinder, Bumble, Match, Liveli, Luvr, Clover and others.

However, video dates face-to-face are just one of the options available on video on dating sites and apps. Let’s take a look at a few unusual ideas implemented on popular platforms:

• Hinge — 30-second videos in your profile. Instead of a static photo, you can upload a short video, explain about yourself, show your life, hobbies and interests. Almost complete freedom to do what you want. Very informative and unusual!
• Tinder — 2-second looping videos Tinder Loop. Something similar has been on Instagram for a long time (Boomerang). A short section of the video loops, creating an interesting animation effect. You can add signatures and define exactly what you want to show in this post. Interestingly, users who added a Tinder Loop to their profiles saw a 20% increase in call duration (according to TechCrunch).
• Match — stories. In many ways, the feature resembles the classic Instagram Stories format, but with an emphasis on dating. Users can download “A Match Story” with video and photo. The duration of such a story is no more than 60 seconds, but there can be several of them.

All of these features are designed not just to make communication on dating sites and applications more diverse, but also to help users find the ideal candidate for a relationship. Given the rapid development of Internet technology, we’ll surely see many more interesting innovations related to video.

But back to our main point — what is the difference between online video chat and live-streaming? Actually, the difference is very significant. In video chat, you communicate face-to-face with one person, while video streaming means that any number of viewers can connect to your broadcast.

Why has live-streaming become popular on internet dating platforms at all?

So what’s the point of adding a video streaming function to dating applications, if there are already enough specialized services? Here are just some of the popular video streaming sites: Twitch, Smashcast, Mixer, YouTube, Bigo Live, Afreeca and others.

At first glance, there is no particular need for live streaming for online dating platforms. But if we look closely, we can see that the function is actually necessary and useful.

The fact is that video streaming in the classical sense is designed not for dating, but for completely different needs:

• broadcasting demonstrations of video game gameplay
• collecting donations from viewers
• self-promotion and the like

Have you heard a lot of stories about how a couple met on Twitch and this was the beginning of a strong romantic relationship? Of course there are such cases, but they are the exception rather than the rule.

Live-streaming in apps and dating sites is aimed specifically at finding a potential match. Or at least for communication between viewers and the host of the stream. Such streams are more personal, creative and even soulful in a sense. And the prospects that they open up are simply huge. Imagine that your stream will be available to the multi-million person audience on a dating app. The chances of finding a person of interest to you in this way are much higher than endlessly swiping left and right on photos of strangers in the hope of a successful meeting.

Yes, so far live-streaming in apps and dating sites is not that common. And while most popular platforms have not joined the new trend, we suggest you pay attention to another format of online dating — online video chats.

Online video chat: an alternative to dating apps and live streaming

We’d like to start with the less popular online video chat site Bazoocam. This is essentially a classic video chat, but with support for video streams. You can start your own stream, and other users, if they wish, will connect to it as viewers. But here it is important to understand that the moderation in Bazoocam is very controversial. Therefore, most of the streams on the site are very explicit. So for promising friendships, this format in Bazoocam is not suitable.

A different story can be seen with alternative video chats such as Omegle, OmeTV, VideochatOmegle, Monkey, Chathub and others. Although they do not offer live-streaming functions in the classical sense, they are still great for online dating. Moreover, many of them offer truly unique opportunities. For example, OmeTV has a built-in message translator, https://videochatomegle.com has a unique gender filter, and Chatrandom has themed chat rooms based on interests. Everyone can find exactly the platform that suits them best.

In the past few years (including due to the pandemic), many popular bloggers have explored video chats and recorded content for their videos here. For example, YouTube star Emma Chamberlain had her birthday party on Omegle, and popular Tiktoker Michael Le, with 35 million followers, often appears in a video chat where he records the reactions of random users to meeting an idol on the Web. These are just a few examples out of hundreds and thousands! Bloggers and Tiktokers only fuel interest in video chats even more. This means that their popularity will continue to grow.

Which video format is right for you?

Now let’s weigh all the pros and cons to decide how important live-streaming is for today’s dating sites and apps.

Benefits:

• The opportunity to talk about yourself to a large audience
• Unusual communication format
• Large possibilities for creativity

Disadvantages:

• Variable prospects for romantic dating
• Too many competing services
• Inactive audience that still prefers classic dating services

Our understanding is that if you are interested in the format of video communication and video dating, it is better to use online video chat rather than video streaming services. At the moment, the live-streaming format is still not suitable for finding a potential match. Perhaps this will change in the future, but so far this is the picture.

We wish you interesting and promising encounters. Use different platforms and never give up, even if your searches don’t give you the results you want. Everything is still ahead for you!