Almost three months after Facebook (FB) announced its plans to launch a dating application at the F8 event, the company is reportedly testing it among its own employees. And we have gained some insights into how it is going to be, thanks to code researcher Jane Manchun Wong, who leaked some sign-up page screenshots on her Twitter handle.
Unlike expected, there won’t probably be a separate app for this, and the dating feature would be an added segment, much like Facebook Marketplace.
But worry not, your dating activities won’t be posted on your Facebook wall. There is even a feature to avoid friends of friends in the dating section so that privacy is not compromised. According to what Mark Zuckerberg said during the F8 event, Facebook Dating will focus more on single people who are attending events in the proximity of the user.
Another striking aspect of Facebook Dating revealed from the leak is that it lets the users choose from five different genders – which includes trans-man, trans-woman and non-binary.
Facebook is internally testing Facebook Dating.
I can't go past the signup screen because they are not activating all non-employee Dating profiles because, well, it's "pre-launch" 😉 pic.twitter.com/VQFHUJIkuX
— Jane Manchun Wong (@wongmjane) August 3, 2018
Conversation starter
If Tinder didn’t work for you because you are not great at breaking the ice, Facebook Dating could be your savior. According to Wong, the social media giant is also working on a feature that would work as a conversation starter.
Meanwhile, what happens once you log in is still a mystery. Facebook employees are currently creating fake profiles and dating their co-employees (of course for testing purposes). All this data will be erased before the feature is rolled out to the public. It is also possible that the feature may not see daylight if the management is not satisfied with it during the testing phase.
Related: What did Facebook bring to F8?
TechCrunch had earlier reported that the tech giant would peg the number of people you could approach on Facebook Dating. So if you are planning a dating spree, you are likely to get blocked.
Also, unlike rival dating apps, Facebook is not much interested in creating a premium paid version with added benefits. So be prepared to see some advertisements in the long term.