Nobody wants to put their dating life on hold during lockdown, but how do you meet new people without leaving the house?

Luckily, Hinge has your summer fling sorted with its new ‘Date From Home’ feature. The dating app has taken some of the pain out of setting up a video call with your match by cutting down on your chances of rejection.

With this update, you might encounter a ‘Date from Home’ menu pop-up while you’re messaging your crush. The pop-up will ask if you’re ready to take the conversation a step further and jump onto a video or phone call.

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The neat part about this feature is that both of your answers will remain private until you both decide that you’re ready to chat. Once your answers match up, the pop-up will return to tell you that “now is the perfect time for a video or phone call”.

The fate of your date is in your hands from there.

Image: Hinge

Image: Hinge

Hinge says it introduced ‘Date from Home’ because of a study showed that a third of users consider the messages leading up to a date to be the most awkward phase of dating. By making sure both of you are ready to pick up the phone, the new feature makes asking your match on a virtual date during lockdown a little less daunting.

“While we may need to be physically distant right now, we can still be socially connected”, said Hinge’s CPO, Tim MacGougan. “We are excited for the launch of ‘Date from Home’ as a new and easy way for our users to continue their dating lives”.

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This isn’t the first we’ve heard of Hinge encouraging users to stay social and keep dating during the outbreak. The app sent out another pop-up two weeks ago reminding users that 70% of Hinge members are open to a digital date, whether over FaceTime, Zoom or a good old-fashioned phone call.

Hannah Davies

Staff Writer

Hannah joined Trusted Reviews as a staff writer in 2019 after graduating with a degree in English from Royal Holloway, University of London. She’s also worked and studied in the US, holding positions …