Getty The Facebook dating app is being tested internally for employees.
According to a tweet by Independent app researcher Jane Wong, Facebook is internally testing a new dating feature within the social media platform.
According to her attached screenshots, Facebook users will be able to curate their dating profiles depending on what their gender is (with great specificity), whether they want their Facebook friends to be able to see their dating profile, what their location is, and what type of gender they’re interested in seeing.
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” ;)
In one of Wong’s screenshot, what seems to be an official message for Facebook employees reads, “This product is for US Facebook employees who have opted-in to dogfooding Facebook’s new dating product. The purpose for this dogfooding is to test the end-to-end product experience for bugs and confusing UI. This is not meant for dating your coworkers.”
In a subsequent tweet, Wong revealed another aspect of Facebook’s potential dating app: a “conversation starter,” which will work to help users break the ice in meeting one another.
Feeling anxious or not knowing what the pickup line to break the ice? Facebook got you, as they are working on something called “Conversation Starter”
Two months ago, Facebook did announce a dating product of some kind at its F8 developer conference, but this is the first notice of Facebook testing the app internally with employees, The Verge reports.
At the F8 Conference, Mark Zuckerberg announced that the service would simply be called “Dating,” and that it would exist as an option directly within a user’s Facebook platform. He also clarified that the service would allow users to create distinct profiles from their main ones in case they want to use the product without letting their Facebook friends know.
Zuckerberg further explained that people would be matched based off of mutual friends, dating preferences, things they have in common, and other criteria, in what he described as “a unique algorithm.”
However, the fact that Facebook is testing the app internally doesn’t necessarily mean the public will ever see it. The product could still be killed at any point.
This is a breaking news post and will be updated with information as it comes.