A product manager behind Facebook's dating feature explains how it's looking to compete with apps like Tinder and Bumble

• Turns out people are actually using Facebook Dating.
• Facebook Dating offers free features like unlimited likes, unlike some competitors with paywalls.
• Business Insider spoke with a product manager behind Facebook's attempt to help people find love.

Facebook isn't giving up on dating.

Meta's dating product, Facebook Dating, got a slew of new features last month and the team behind it believes it can help users who are struggling with dating app fatigue.

And before you ask, yes, real people are using it. I even set up an account to see it for myself.

Meta announced earlier this year that the dating product, which launched in 2019, had grown its user base by 20% year over year within the US and Canada. Among young adults, Meta also reported that daily conversations increased 24% year over year. Meta didn't disclose how many people are using it, however.

Meanwhile, dating incumbents like Match Group and Bumble have been grappling with users' diminishing stamina for online dating.

The biggest pitch Facebook Dating has going for it? It's free — with no limits, no paywalls, and no recurring subscriptions.

"The point of Facebook dating was to be able to offer as much as we can for free because we can afford to do that," Shabnum Gulati, a product manager overseeing Facebook Dating's user-facing features, told Business Insider. "We don't really believe in monetizing love, frankly. We're trying to offer as many features as we can that are competitive with other apps for free."

While Facebook isn't directly monetizing love, the product does sit within its core app and could help drive people to engage with its other money-making features.

The Facebook Dating team, which sits under the Facebook org, has around 50 staffers, Gulati said. BI sat down with Gulati at one of Meta's offices in New York to get a walkthrough of the Facebook Dating experience.

A few features that Facebook offers for free that are paywalled on other dating apps — either through subscriptions (like some Match Group apps) or pay-to-play apps (like Raya) — include unlimited likes, the ability to revisit anyone you swiped left on, and sorting through the feed of matches by interests.

Here's a summary of Facebook's key dating features that it hopes will help it compete with Tinder, Bumble, and newer startups:

• Friends can swipe on your behalf using Facebook's "Matchmaker" tool. The feature launched in October and is similar to features seen elsewhere, like "Tinder Matchmaker" and on new dating apps like Cheers. "We've seen that women are the most commonly invited matchmakers," Gulati said. "So women invite other women and then guys tend to also invite their female friends."
• Facebook Dating has also rolled out some AI tools (one of Meta's top priorities across its apps). Right now, users can automate writing their bios using Meta's generative AI. While the team is testing potential applications of Meta AI, there is some hesitation. "We've been trying to be very careful with how we think about messaging features and AI," Gulati said, adding that there is no plan to introduce AI bots or assistants in the dating DMs.
• Facebook Dating is also integrated with Instagram. Users can opt-in to link their Instagram accounts, which appear on the dating profile card. There is also a separate feed for Instagram posts shared by Facebook Dating users within the Facebook app. "This is kind of our way of showing people based off of the Instagram discovery feed," Gulati said. Right now, Instagram doesn't have any dating-specific features (but that doesn't keep people from finding romance on the app).
• Users can send "secret crushes" to friends of friends on Facebook — and Instagram. "What this does is this just sends them a notification that says someone on Facebook Dating sent you a crush," Gulati explained. "And then if they receive the notice, they want to sign up for Facebook Dating, we'll show them that it's you and they can choose to match back with you."