
Ilana Dunn did not start to become a dating trainer. Like many of us, she had years of exams and difficulties in relationships and relied on dating apps to find her.
Dunn, now the host of the See other people Podcast with almost 50,000 subscribed listeners had worked in the music industry for several years to create content behind the scenes for artists and bands. But her dating life was a “complete dummy container fire,” she said, she said Assets.
“I had this pattern that I could not only break from emotionally not available men who worked in the music business,” said Dunn. “And so I had the feeling that I had reached the rock bottom after my WHO-KNOWS-WHAT number of bad separation and I couldn’t listen to music. I have to (ED) come out of this industry because it caused me so much pain.”
Dunn left the music industry to take over a content management position in 2018.
“When this opportunity appeared, I said:” Wow, what a cool way to use all the pain and heartache that I went through to help only one person out there, “she said.”
Shortly after Dunn was connected, the popularity of the dating app began to a climax. The hinge was acquired by the Match group In 2019 there was a juice and Covid-19 initiated a pandemic lockdown era dating boom. Dunn even agreed with her husband with a dating app – even though she said her connection was personally formed over a glass of wine.
Dunn knew little at the time that a few years later the dating apps were made from the population New dating expectations and feeling From younger generations.
Forbes found in a survey 2024 more than 75% With dating apps such as hinge, Tinder and Bumble, they feel burned out of gen -zers because they do not feel as if they can find a real connection with someone, even though they spend for the apps. And Financial results of the Match Group Illustrate these changing settings: The profits in the first quarter amounted to $ 117.6 million compared to USD $ 123.2 in 2024, and paid users decreased by 5% compared to 14.2 million.

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Even Spencer Rascoff, CEO of the play group approved in a letter Posted on LinkedIn Dating apps feel like a number game today that “people leave the wrong impression that we prioritize metrics from experience.”
This has caused several large dating app brands such as hinge, bumble and tinder to introduce new functions and products into their list. One example is a function with which Tinder users can combine with friends in order to promote double dating.
“This is how Gen Z wants to connect,” said Rascoff. “You want to swing your way through the meeting of people.”
Why dating apps don’t make the comeback that they hope for
While Dunn said she was glad that the dating apps want to develop further -“because they have to” -she did not say that they could do something to save the dating app industry as a whole.
“You can try to find more opportunities to allow people to judge chemistry, but if you don’t really urge people to meet in real life by possibly creating more personal activations and events where people can assess:” Oh, is there a mood here? “I don’t know that you will get the comeback to be as big as before.”
Gen Zers and Millennials are increasingly interested in “meeting cutes” or meeting a romantic partner in real life instead of on a dating app.
“I don’t just want to chat online with people” Assets. “I don’t want a Penpal.”
This has caused more people to start equipping meetups in real life such as Max Gomez, a Gen-Z Communication Profi, to organize a party “Champagne and Shackles” on which they matched party goers. You posted leaflets in your neighborhood and invited a few strangers to a matchmaking “in real time”, said Gomez beforehand Assets.

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Dunn too recently hosted A master class for the art of meeting with the 156-year-old wine brand Louis Jadot House. The idea was inspired by the classic concept to meet a partner: in a bar that shares wine.
“If you only sit on your couch and think: ‘Wow, the apps don’t work for me and nobody beats my door down and tries to meet me. I will be single forever,’ you don’t necessarily put yourself in the best position,” said Dunn.
She predicted that she predicts that we will see more personal master classes, individual events and other opportunities to meet romantic partners because the feeling about dating apps changes. Denner said Dunn that the fact that dating apps are developing, trying to develop shows. Hingse has reduced the number of matches with which a user can chat at the same time, which forces users to make decisions and prioritize the agreement in which they are really interested.
“I think (dating apps) put a long way to curate healthy dating behavior,” said Dunn. “But I also think that there are only so many people who use them so passively.”
Dating tips by Ilana Dunn
Dunn spent about two years as an content manager at Hanging and started her podcast See other people In 2021 he produced two episodes a week with dating experts.
As a dating trainer, she said she always encouraged people to use the dating apps -but not only Apps.
“It is so much easier for someone to hide behind his phone and put the idea of the news he tinkered,” said Dunn. “But it is possible to learn how to combine yourself in real life, and it could require practice. It could require to find out what you can control and go to a bar with which you are familiar with order a glass of jidot wine and adhere to a conversation with someone.”
She also said that it was about saying “yes” to say an invitation to get drinks with a colleague or see who else appears or a random birthday party.
“Sit a small goal for yourself and convince yourself that you can do it and you will be very pleasantly surprised what comes out of it,” said Dunn with the example of only beating a conversation with someone you have never met before.
Another tip for dating app users: turn the conversations into data as soon as possible, said Dunn.
“As soon as you have the date, you can choose, is there a mood? Are we interested in each other? Do we feel this chemistry?” Said Dunn.