The short version
There is a word for it now: chatfishing. Using an AI chatbot to write your dating app messages, openers or profile.
It is not a fringe habit. Research from Match Group and the Kinsey Institute found 26% of US adults have used AI for dating help, rising to 49% of Gen Z daters.
The apps know, and have no rule against it. Match, Hinge and Bumble prohibit AI-manipulated photos. None of them prohibits AI-written messages. Match Group's chief executive has said the company has not focused on the issue enough yet.
Detection is the problem. AI detection tools exist, they are unreliable, and no major dating app has deployed one.
Meanwhile the apps are building their own. Bumble launched an AI assistant called Bee. Tinder and Hinge have added AI profile and conversation features. The industry's answer to AI in dating has been more AI.
And the investing angle is narrower than you would expect, because the listed universe in this sector has been shrinking.
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What chatfishing actually is
The behaviour is simple. Someone matches with you. They do not know what to say. They paste the conversation into a chatbot and ask it to write the reply.
It extends further than messages:
- ✍️ Writing profiles and bios.
- 📸 Choosing which photos to use.
- 💬 Drafting opening lines based on the other person's profile.
- 🔍 Interpreting messages and working out what went wrong.
- 👋 Writing kinder ways to end things.
The term has stuck. Chatfishing now has its own entry on Wikipedia, and a 2026 study in the journal Telematics and Informatics coined a related term, the Cyrano effect, for messages where the real author is hidden behind the person sending them.
That study found the gap that matters: users saw AI as a way to express their true selves more clearly, while recipients who found out felt deceived. Same message, two completely different readings depending on which side of it you are on.
The numbers
- 📊 26% of US adults have used AI for dating help, rising to 49% of Gen Z daters (Match Group and Kinsey Institute).
- 👍 About 80% of 1,050 US users aged 21-35 said they were comfortable getting AI help with dating profiles (Coffee Meets Bagel survey).
- 👀 Six in ten dating app users believe they have encountered AI-written conversations (Norton 2025 Cyber Safety Report).
- 🤖 44% of US adults now report using ChatGPT, more than double the share in 2023 (Pew Research Center, 2026).
That last figure is the context for all the others. Dating is not being singled out. It is one of the places a general-purpose tool has quietly become normal.
Why the apps are not stopping it
Because they cannot, and because they are doing it themselves.
On enforcement: the platforms ban AI-manipulated photos but not AI-written text. Detection tools are unreliable, and deploying one that wrongly accuses real users of faking messages would be worse than the problem.
On strategy: the apps have decided the answer is to offer the feature rather than fight it. Bumble launched an AI assistant called Bee, designed to learn a user's values, goals and communication style through private conversations. Tinder and Hinge have added AI tools for photo selection, profile writing and conversation starters.
The logic is defensible. If people are pasting conversations into a chatbot anyway, the app would rather they did it inside the app, where the data stays and the subscription can be charged for it.
One telling detail. Hinge's founder publicly described dating AI chatbots as playing with fire, arguing AI should stand behind people rather than between them. He later stepped down from Hinge to launch an AI-powered dating venture, backed by Match Group.
The investing angle is smaller than the story
This is a huge cultural trend attached to a shrinking listed sector.
Match Group (MTCH) is the main listed way to research this theme. It owns Tinder, Hinge, Match, OkCupid and Plenty of Fish, and it is the company whose own research produced the 26% figure.
Bumble is leaving the public market. We wrote about that when the take-private was agreed at $6.05 a share, which removes one of the two obvious ways to research the sector.
And the underlying business has been under pressure. Bumble reported total paying users falling 21.1% in the first quarter of 2026, to 3.2 million from 4 million a year earlier. The dating app model has been losing paying users while the behaviour around dating apps has never been more widespread.
That gap is the interesting part for an investor. Enormous usage. Enormous cultural relevance. Shrinking subscriber numbers and a sector consolidating into fewer listed names.
It is the same shape as the Reddit problem we wrote about this week. Engagement and monetisation are different things, and a trend being everywhere does not mean there is a good way to own it.
What the apps are actually betting on
That AI changes the product, not just the messages.
- 🐝 Bumble's Bee learns a user's values and goals through conversation, and the company has experimented with removing the swipe entirely in some markets.
- 💘 Tinder and Hinge have added AI photo selection and conversation tools.
- 🆕 New entrants are building AI-first products, asking users dozens of questions about values and intentions rather than presenting a grid of photos.
The commercial logic: a chatbot conversation produces far more data about a user than a swipe does. More data means better matching, and better matching is the only thing these companies can really sell.
The risk: the same tool that helps you write a better opener also makes every opener sound the same. If users cannot tell who they are actually talking to, the product's core promise weakens. One survey found six in ten users already believe they have encountered AI-written conversations.
What could go wrong
- 📉 Paying users have been falling. Bumble's 21.1% drop in the first quarter of 2026 is the clearest example. Popularity and paid subscriptions are not the same thing.
- 🏚️ The listed universe is shrinking. With Bumble going private, researching this theme on a public market means looking at far fewer companies than the cultural footprint suggests.
- 🤷 Trust is the product. If enough users assume messages are machine-written, the reason to use the app at all weakens. Six in ten already suspect it.
- ⚖️ Regulation is unwritten. Nobody has decided whether AI-written dating messages require disclosure, and rules could arrive in any jurisdiction.
- 🆓 The competition is free. Users do not need an app's AI assistant when a general chatbot already does it at no extra cost. That is a hard product to charge for.
- 🧭 And this is a behaviour story, not an earnings story. Nothing here tells you what any company will report next quarter.
MTCH is an example to research, not a recommendation.
What should investors take from this?
A trend being everywhere does not mean there is a good way to own it.
This is one of the most widespread behavioural shifts of the past two years. A quarter of US adults, half of Gen Z daters. And the listed companies most associated with it have been losing paying users and leaving the public market.
Three habits:
- 🔗 Check the listed route before you get interested in a theme. Sometimes the companies most exposed to a trend are private, shrinking, or both.
- 💰 Separate usage from revenue. A product everyone uses and nobody pays for is a difficult business, which is the same tension we found at Reddit this week.
- 🧺 Consider the broader route. If the theme you actually believe in is AI adoption rather than dating specifically, the companies building the underlying technology are a different proposition, and funds spread that exposure across many of them.
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FAQs
What is chatfishing? Using an AI chatbot to write dating app messages, opening lines or profiles without telling the person you are talking to. The term now has its own Wikipedia entry, and a 2026 academic study coined a related term, the Cyrano effect, for messages where the real author is hidden.
How many people use AI for dating? Research from Match Group and the Kinsey Institute found 26% of US adults have used AI for dating help, rising to 49% of Gen Z daters. A Coffee Meets Bagel survey of 1,050 US users aged 21-35 found around 80% were comfortable with AI help on profiles.
Do dating apps ban AI-written messages? No. Match, Hinge and Bumble prohibit AI-manipulated photos but not AI-written text. Detection tools are unreliable and none of the major apps has deployed one.
Which dating companies are listed? Match Group trades on the Nasdaq under the ticker MTCH and owns Tinder, Hinge, Match, OkCupid and Plenty of Fish. Bumble has agreed to leave the public market, which reduces the listed options in the sector.
Can I invest in dating app companies from the UAE? Match Group trades on the Nasdaq as MTCH. On Nemo.money you can research and invest in eligible US-listed stocks and ETFs from $1 with zero commission, with uninvested cash earning 6% AER interest, paid daily in USD. MTCH is an example to research, not a recommendation. Your capital is at risk.
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