Dating app Tinder just announced a new safety feature which can be added to users’ profiles to report an unsafe dating experience in real-time.

The Match-owned Tinder app has partnered with Noonlight, where they will implement a separate feed for you to share your location on a timeline while on a date. With this feature, if you are in danger, you can hit the panic button, and confirm that you need help. This will alert local authorities to check up on you.

With dating safety and privacy being of great concern to daters, having this badge on your profile will alert a potential date to let them know you expect a safe dating experience.

Before you head out on your date, you’ll be able to add details of your plans, which will appear in your Tinder timeline. According to Match’s announcement, you’ll be able to represent that you could be in danger secretly by pushing a panic button.

This new feature will launch in January, first on Tinder, and then is expected to be added to other Match-owned sites.

However, If your date doesn’t look like their profile photos, or you don’t have chemistry, politely leave the date early, and thank them for their time. In cases like these, there’s no need to panic.

RELATED: Tinder’s Panic Button is Here to Help You Swipe Safely

Tinder’s Panic Button is Here to Help You Swipe Safely
I’m thrilled to learn of this big step to help singles feel safe on a date. It will be simple to report a severe or dangerous problem should it arise, and you can be assured, help will be on its way.

Julie Spira is an Award-Winning Dating Coach, and America’s Top Online Dating Expert. She’s been coaching singles on finding love online for 25 years.

FOLLOW @JulieSpira on Twitter

At the 2020 SAG Awards, Brad Pitt walked away with the win for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.

The single Hollywood heartthrob began his speech by holding his statue up and saying, “I gotta add this to my Tinder profile.” While he said it jokingly and in jest, the crowd roared with laughter, because Tinder is a household name, and celebrities are using dating apps.

Watch Brad Pitt’s SAG Awards Speech

So does Brad Pitt have a Tinder profile? I don’t know anyone who has yet had the opportunity to swipe right on Pitt on a dating app, but if so, he’s in good company.

Recently, Sharon Stone was spotted on Bumble, and it wasn’t fake news. Too many Bumbling users assumed the profile wasn’t really hers, and successfully got the app to take the profile down in error.

Stone went to Twitter to ask Bumble to reactivate her profile, so she can start swiping right for love.

Other celebrities on dating sites and apps have included, Sinead O’Connor, Demi Lovato, Zac Efron, Katy Perry, John Mayer, Lindsay Lohan, Khloe Kardashian, and Hilary Duff. 

If you do spot Pitt’s profile on Tinder, swipe right, and let me know, as it would be a thrill to critique his dating profile for him, and he’s already proved he’s got a sense of humor.

Julie Spira is an award-winning dating coach and America’s Top Online Dating Expert. She’s been coaching singles on finding love online for 25 years with her Irresistible Profiles programs.

FOLLOW @JulieSpira on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook

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New Year’s Resolutions. Who needs them? When you’re single and desire to change your relationship status, finding love in the New Year is usually on your list, and there’s no better time to get started than Sunday, January 5th. 

Call it being hopeful about the future, call it kicking 2019 and the entire decade to the curb, or chalk it up to a lackluster holiday, any way you dice it, Sunday, January 5th will be the world’s largest digital singles party, and you’re invited to join in on the fun. 

What is Dating Sunday? 

Dating Sunday is an annual tradition in the dating industry, as we get ready for the enormous surge of singles joining dating apps on the first Sunday of the New Year, and if you’d like to fill your date card, you won’t want to miss this.

Related: Dating Sunday Survival Guide

Julie Spira on ABC News – Dating Sunday 2018

Dating Sunday by the Numbers

Match, who initially coined Dating Sunday, expects to see the biggest day in history on their app, with 80% of new singles joining the app on Dating Sunday (up 90% from last year).

They predict the peak minute to be logged will be at 9:15 pm/EST, and during Peak Season, December 26th through February 14th, 60 million will be messages sent, which is 1.5 million messages per day! 

Additionally, Match will see more than 600,000 dates taking place across the US. That’s over half a billion dates, everyone. 

Dating app Inner Circle expects new signups to peak around 7 pm, with the highest activity to spike around 9 pm. Inner Circle predicts a 33% increase in number of matches on Dating Sunday.

David Vermeulen, Inner Circle’s CEO and founder said, “We see a huge spike in activity on the first Sunday of the year as singles start to set new year resolutions and contemplate being single on Valentine’s Day.”

According to dating app Coffee Meets Bagel, over 1 million messages were sent on Dating Sunday in 2019, with January being their most popular month of the year. 

Bumble, where Sharon Stone is now a new member, defines peak season as the time from Thanksgiving to Valentine’s Day and tells the New York Post they expect to see more than 3 million new users join and over 20 million messages sent on their app during this time.

How Can You Make the Most of Dating Sunday?

At Cyber-Dating Expert, we’re busy getting singles profiles perfected in time for Dating Sunday and expect it to be a busy month of matching and dating in January. 

In an interview with USA Today, I provided some suggestions on what to do now to get ready for Dating Sunday.

Start the Decade with a Clean Digital Slate

Since it’s a new year and decade, chances are your photos are making your profile stale. I recommend starting with a clean digital palette, and that means your pictures posted 5+ years ago just won’t cut it. 

Dawoon Kang, CEO of the Coffee Meets Bagel dating app, reports that 80% of singles pass on a profile because of bad photos, and recommends uploading at least three pictures to your profile. By doing so, she says it will increase your chances of being liked by more than 30%!

To make it easy, I suggest going through your camera roll and find some photos that were insta-worthy or ones that you’ve sent via text to friends and loved ones. 

Grab a friend and take new photos with five different looks, or if your budget permits, hire a photographer and a dating coach. Since Pew Research reports that 30% of women have asked for help with their profiles, you want to make sure you make the best impression.

Remember, you’re only as good as your worst photo, so the blurry shots, selfies, and group photos need to go.

As I told BBC radio in a recent interview, wearing sunglasses in your photos gives the impression that you’re hiding something, so let’s look into those gorgeous eyes to capture the essence of the person you’d like to meet.

Caption Your Photos

Singles are still leery of meeting someone in person who won’t look like their photos, so make sure you caption your photos with the year and location, especially the travel shots, as everyone has a dream trip on their bucket list. It’s one of the easiest conversations to start with, when you need to say more than, “hey.”

Update Your Bio

Photos aside, if you’re talking about something you did in 2017, it sends the message that you’ve been online for a long time, and you haven’t had anything exciting happen in your life in a few years.

If you went to a great concert last year, or you’re planning a trip to Macchu Picchu in 2020, add it to your profile. If there’s an interesting art exhibition opening in 2020 that you’d like to see, put it in your bio, as it gives the person reading your profile an easy way to ask you out on a date, over your shared love of art.

Use Multiple Apps

You need to cast a wide net, and with thousands of dating apps available at your fingertips, I recommend starting with three, as it’s the most manageable number. Remember to log on at least twice a day, so the magic dating algorithms have a chance to show your profile more often

For the best and easiest way to fill your date card, stay active for at least one hour every day, with Sunday nights still being the most active time for swiping and matching.

Get Organized

Having the ability to make every conversation and date feel special, starts with being organized and doing your homework before you hop on the phone or meet IRL.We create a spreadsheet at Cyber-Dating Expert for each client, called the signature Date Card. The Date Card keeps you organized and makes sure that someone great doesn’t fall through the cracks.

There’s nothing worse than calling “Danny,” “Jimmy,” or asking your date where they went to medical school when they’re a practicing attorney.

Don’t Play Hard to Get

Now is not the time to be coy and invisible. Communicate with people, exchange phone numbers, and start setting dates to meet.  I can’t stress enough how many people played the waiting game, and by the time they responded to someone they really liked, they found out that person met someone on an app and decided to become exclusive.

CMB’s Dawoon Kang agrees, and says to strike while the iron’s hot. Kang says you’re 52% more likely to get a response if you initiate a chat within three hours of matching.

Answer Questions to Make Better Matches

I’ve always been intrigued by the match percentages on a profile, and answering thought-provoking questions on OkCupid is not only just fun to do, but helps you determine compatibility, and makes it easy to start a conversation.

Melissa Hobley, OkCupid’s CMO told The Hill that climate change teen activist Greta Thunberg, who was named Time Magazine’s “Person of the Year,” actually helped make more matches on their app. OkCupid saw an 800% increase in mentions of Thunberg on profiles in 2019!

“Climate change and your feelings about that show up in your life in so many ways,” Hobley told The Hill. She added, “Climate change and how you feel about that can really help for compatibility.”

It’s a Numbers Game and You Need to Play to Win

When you have millions of messages sent on dating apps, it can be both exciting and overwhelming. The only way that Dating Sunday will work for you is if you commit to chatting online, and then scheduling a date to meet someone offline, and the sooner, the better.

Wishing you much love and joy in cyberspace, or wherever you may swipe or roam.

Julie Spira is America’s Top Online Dating Expert and Digital Matchmaker. She was an early adopter of Internet dating, and has been coaching singles on finding love online for 25 years.

FOLLOW @JulieSpira on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook

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A few weeks ago, I spoke with a single male, who said say he saw Sharon Stone’s profile on Bumble, and of course, he swiped right.

We both realized at that time, that it was indeed the actress Sharon Stone, as she included her home town, real age, and appeared to be a single woman looking for love on the app.

Despite his desire to be matched with the star of the Basic Instinct film star, Stone never swiped right on my friend.

Instead, Bumble got inundated with complaints from other users who believed it was a fake profile. Since most dating apps have a zero-tolerance policy for fake profiles, so Stone’s profile was removed and blocked in error.

Stone posted a photo on Twitter of her notification of being blocked and said,

“I went on the @bumble dating sight [sic] and they closed my account.”

She added,

“Hey @bumble, is being me exclusionary? Don’t shut me out of the hive.”

Sharon Stone did receive an apology from Bumble, and her profile is now back on the app for singles to swipe right on.

Are celebrities on dating apps a new phenomenon? Not at all.

On BBC Radio 5 Live, I was a guest on the Tony and Helen show to talk about celebrities using dating apps. 

Recently Channing Tatum was spotted on dating app Raya, and other celebrities who have used dating apps have included Demi Lovato, Zac Efron, Katy Perry, John Mayer, Lindsay Lohan, Khloe Kardashian, and Hilary Duff. 

Should celebrities be using dating apps? Of course! Today, finding a partner on a dating app ranks as the top way to meet, with a study from Stanford University reporting 39% of heterosexual couples meeting online, and 65% of same-sex relationships began online.

With Dating Sunday, the busiest day for online dating set for December 5, 2020, it’s time to ramp up your profile and log on for love.

Wishing you much love and joy in cyberspace, or wherever you may swipe or roam.

Julie Spira is America’s Top Online Dating Expert and Digital Matchmaker. She’s the founder of Cyber-Dating Expert, and as an early adopter of the Internet, has been coaching singles on finding love online and on dating apps for 25 years.

FOLLOW @JulieSpira on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

SIGN UP for the FREE Weekly Flirt newsletter for dating advice delivered to your inbox.

These days, meeting someone online for drinks doesn’t always equate to going on a romantic date. Add in to the equation that many singles tend to go out in groups, so defining dating has become complicated.

Unless you’ve met someone on a dating app, and you’ve stated that you’re looking for a long-term relationship, meeting someone you like or have a crush on for drinks could mean a several things.

From getting together to hang out casually to, expanding your social network or even to talking shop if you met this person in the course of business, unless they lean in for a kiss, you might be in the friend zone, for now.

With all of these possibilities, it might be baffling to know in advance if you’ll be on the same romantic page as the person you’re meeting for happy hour during the week.

Ramp Up Your Flirting Skills 

To know for sure if you’re on a date, notice if there are visible signs of flirting. This could be in the form of sending regular text messages, possibly with a flirt emoticon, letting you know they’re single, and watching their body language to see if they smile when they see you.

Since first dates need to be in a low-pressure environment, I always advise going on a date to expand your social network and also to see if there’s any chemistry. There’s nothing worse than meeting someone you’ve got a crush on, only to find out they have a live-in partner they never mentioned before.

If you’re female, and you’re hoping your upcoming get together will be a romantic evening, make sure you dress up for the occasion. That means to change your outfit from work-mode to something a little flirtier such as a little black dress with a jacket and boots, add a little lipstick, and you’re ready to go.

Be Interested in Your Date

Remember to listen more than talk to find out more about the person you’re meeting for drinks.

Watch for their body language when you arrive. Are you greeted with a hug and a smile, or a handshake with your chair pulled out for you.

Try to limit your alcoholic intake to one drink, and at the end of the date, see if they’d like to get together again. If the person you’re meeting picks up the tab, that’s code for being on an official date, and a great sign if you feel the same.

If they suggest splitting the bill, know that you’re in the friend zone, and be okay with it. You never know if this person has a friend they could introduce you to, so be an exciting date, regardless of the label.

Follow Up When You’re Still Aglow

If you had a great time on your date, send a text the same evening to thank your date for getting together, and to let them know you had a great time and look forward to seeing them again.

Don’t play the waiting game, because the squeaky wheel gets the digital love deal.

Wishing you much love and joy in cyberspace, or wherever you may swipe or roam.

Julie Spira is America’s Top Online Dating Expert and Digital Matchmaker. As an early adopter of the Internet, Julie’s been coaching singles on finding love online for 25 years. 

FOLLOW @JulieSpira on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram

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