From Quartz.

For the first time in history, virtually everyone who’s dating is dating virtually. Covid-19 has forced a pivot to video for many of the estimated 41% of online singles on dating apps worldwide. And an ongoing slow shift within the industry has accelerated.

Bumble, which launched in-app video chat in 2019, said its use increased 56% worldwide over the last two weeks of March. Mentions of FaceTime, Skype, and Zoom on OKCupid dating profiles went up 180% from February to March. People are eating together, streaming together, and visiting islands together on the game Animal Crossing.

If nothing else, virtual dating is, at least temporarily, showing us how to be human on dating apps. As relationship therapist Esther Perel told Quartz, “People are entering into each other’s erotic minds at this moment since they can’t enter into each other’s bodies. And that’s a lot more intimate.”

Watch our video to learn what, exactly, the world of virtual dating looks like—and why it might outlast the pandemic.

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VIDEO
Meghan McDonough
Eduardo Araújo

REPORTING
Meghan McDonough

EDITING
Eduardo Araújo

ART DIRECTION
Arielle Ray

SENIOR PRODUCER
Emily Watson

EXECUTIVE PRODUCER
Jacob Templin

CAMERA
Meghan McDonough
Eduardo Araújo
Tony Lin

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