Online daters looking for more than endless swiping

A page from the Hinge dating app. Justin McLeod, who launched Hinge in 2011, thinks that dating apps should be focused on getting people offline. Hinge's tag line is 'the app that's designed to be deleted'. — Hinge/AP

LONDON: While taboos surrounding online dating are long gone, some of today’s app users are sick of the endless swiping and virtual pen-paling that leads nowhere when it comes to long-term relationships, according to industry leaders who are responding with new ways to get users off their phones and out meeting people in the real world.

David Vermeulen is one such leader. His Inner Circle, launched in 2012, is more closely curating users looking for meaningful connections, and he's hosting offline events in cities around the globe to help make that happen among his more than two million members. He said he saw a big shift in online dating attitudes toward the end of the decade as some people have become "Tinder tired”.