What will dating look like in 2026? Single women tell all.

Of the four single women Mashable interviewed about dating in 2026, three had one thing in common.

At least they are not aggressive towards them.

“I have hinges,” Kaylee, a 23-year-old dancer who lives in Brooklyn, told me. “But do I use it? No.” Like all her daters, Kaylee chose to go by her first name only for privacy reasons.

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“I went on a date with Hinge once and I was like, ‘You’re the most boring person I’ve ever met,'” she said. “I haven’t ridden one since.”

Of the four daters I spoke with, none of them were interested in dating apps, including those who were actively participating in them. People who date, especially those looking for long-term partners, are frustrated with dating apps. That’s nothing new, says dating coach Erika Ettin. But the more technology intervenes in our love lives, the more isolated people seem to feel.

“We’ve never had more apps than we do today. We’ve never had more options than we do today. We’re so connected, yet so disconnected,” Mehak, host of the podcast Love-ly, told me. Love-ly is a podcast about dating, relationships, identity, and culture through the lens of immigrant identity.

But despite the obvious burnout, there is hope for dating, including on apps.

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Great opt-out of dating

Dr. Jess Calvino, a relationship and online dating expert, has seen more people “solomaxing” or “self-partnering” – remaining single – in recent years.

“This is consistent with a larger trend related to loneliness as well as relationship breakdown,” said Calvino, a sociology Ph.D. who previously worked as a sociologist at Tinder and Bumble. Even before the coronavirus lockdowns, Americans were reporting increased feelings of loneliness, and the isolation and changes to daily life that followed didn’t help. In recent years, separation from family members has also increased.

Calvino attributes opting out of dating to skepticism and cynicism. She says both men and women are wary of each other. There is also a tendency to moralize, or to classify certain actions as right or wrong.

But why are younger daters so skeptical and cynical? Calvino believes that Gen Zers have never dated before, don’t know how to date, and are holding back because of anxiety, a preoccupation with technology, and economic uncertainty.

It’s clear that the socio-economic status of young people (and older people) is a barrier to dating. Last month, WIRED declared that people can’t afford to date, and the New York Times recently reported that rising costs are also preventing people from having children.

“They don’t see themselves or others as viable options.”

Young people are withdrawing from marriage and partnerships at a young age “because they feel they don’t have the capacity,” Calvino explained. “They don’t see themselves or others as viable options. I think this is very consistent with the demographic data that we’re seeing in terms of increasing age at first marriage and age at childbearing.”

Between 1980 and 2023, the median age at first marriage for American women increased by 29%, from 22.0 to 28.4, according to Bowling Green State University.

And there are also cultural reasons for going solo. Having a boyfriend has been considered “embarrassing”. Straight women are pessimistic about their options and aren’t afraid to say it on social media. And that doesn’t even touch on the growing political polarization among young men and women.

And while daters continue to be frustrated with dating apps, AI has joined the mix. Over the past few years, the most popular dating apps (Tinder, Hinge, Bumble) have added AI features such as Chemistry, Tinder’s AI matchmaker.

“Nobody buys into it,” Ettin said of AI. “It’s generally much harder to make connections these days, so the last thing people want is for connections to become less personal or less human due to increased AI intervention.”

Second, some daters use chatbots to come up with messages (if they’re not dating a bot itself). When someone uses AI to swipe or chat, “unless someone has done the work upfront, it doesn’t bode well for a good partnership,” she says.

Mashable Trend Report

Moena, a 26-year-old PR professional and dater, said AI in dating “kills authenticity in a way.” As a Bumble user, she’s curious to see what the app that removes the swipe feature plans to do with AI in the coming months. However, many users have expressed dissatisfaction with the shift to AI online.

But even without AI, disdain for dating apps is steadily growing. Looking at its financial performance, Hinge has consistently grown its direct revenue and paid users, but the same cannot be said for Tinder and Bumble. The latter is apparently considering selling it as the number of downloads declines.

overwhelming and overwhelming

For Mehak, who no longer uses apps, dating can be both overwhelming and overwhelming.

Dating can be both overwhelming and overwhelming at the same time.

“It’s overwhelming because you know the app never stops, you’re constantly swiping, you’re having the same conversation, you’re on a first date going somewhere,” she explained.

After a while, all dates start to feel the same. She enjoys dating – she loves people and is interested in them – but burns out in the process.

Mehak, who is in her early 30s, said the difference between dating now and 10 years ago is the abundance of options. She also suffers from ambivalence. She wants to find a lover, but the process cannot be rushed.

“I spent a lot of time on the second day answering six months of questions,” she said. She asks herself questions like: “Do you see a future with them?” Is this my person? “I laugh at myself as I say this, because how could I know that?”

I also sometimes go out with friends to meet new people, but I don’t like speed dating events because they feel manufactured.

Kate Syme, who is in her early 50s, said dating apps were removing the human element from dating and fostering an environment where everyone was disposable. Before she met her ex-husband at age 27, she met them through friends, through work, or by locking eyes with someone across a bar. But dating doesn’t seem to work that way anymore.

Syme also said that many singles events in London involve throwing people into a room and giving them alcohol, so she wanted to do something different.

This fall, she plans to launch Casalist, a business aimed at straight singles in London aged 35 and over. Casalist hosts events with activities such as wine tastings and dinner parties, combined with talks to help people through various elements of relationships, such as emotions and finances. She also plans to vet people to get rid of catfish.

I’m just looking for a date

“Even at our age, people just want sex,” Syme said. She and her friends use Hinge and Bumble, and after sharing their stories, she realized she had been seeing the same man on and off those apps for the past three years.

“They’re not really looking for a serious relationship,” she says. What she and her friends discovered was that the men brave enough to pick up girls at bars tended to be married, open about the fact that they were having an affair, and had no intention of breaking up with their partners. And when they leave, or when they leave, they immediately download the app.

“Women work, they do therapy, they play with their girlfriends, they take time out, they heal, they act alone, they grieve, they do things the right way, whereas men don’t care about that and jump right into the next relationship,” she explained.

What’s missing from these conversations? Tinder.

Moena said she doesn’t currently use Tinder (she uses Bumble, Hinge, and Raya instead). That’s because of its hookup reputation, which is exactly what current CEO Spencer Rascoff wants to move away from. The remaining three are also not on Tinder. However, Tinder has the largest market share of any popular dating app in the United States, according to Business of Apps. Market intelligence firm Sensor Tower also found that Tinder’s mobile user base is on average 2.5 times larger than Bumble’s mobile user base.

Is there hope for those who date?

For now, some young people are solomaxing, but Calvino believes it’s temporary. They haven’t given up on being single forever. She hopes people will be more optimistic. “Because there are a lot of people out there looking for someone and eager to meet someone.”

And Mehak told Mashable that she’s optimistic. But she realized that her sense of fulfillment and confidence came from her own life, not from the attention of men. She tries to pour into other aspects of her life so that “dating takes up a very normal amount of space in my brain.”

Kaylee, a dancer, said she often meets people through dance projects. Then she found out that she had common interests and found it easy to be friends with someone and see where it would take her.

And despite the anger over dating apps, Ettin believed people would complain if they disappeared. She said meeting someone is not easy and requires a lot of time, energy and sometimes money. The attitude of your date makes all the difference.

“Apps aren’t keeping people single,” she says. “That’s how people use it.”

Ettin’s dating app tips include:

To avoid falling into the pen pal trap, don’t exchange phone numbers until you’ve planned a date.

Treat the first conversation like a funnel. Start with a wide range and work your way down to narrower areas. No, “How are you today?” That’s boring.

Try to meet early in case the other person turns out to be a catfish or just a dud.

Calvino also urges daters not to put their partner down solely because of their imperfections, as the “dump him” social media culture might suggest. Abusive behavior should never be tolerated, but there’s a huge difference between an irritated or moody pet and something truly harmful.

“Many people who have been in a romantic partnership, straight or not, know that sometimes people behave in unattractive ways,” she says. “Sometimes your partner may do things that you don’t like or are uncomfortable with, but that doesn’t mean they’re a bad person.”

“Honestly, imperfection is what’s really great about it, because that’s where you see growth and introspection happen,” she continued.

And if you don’t want to deal with other people’s flaws, or, let’s be real, your own, you might want to stop dating. Come back whenever you’re ready. When asked if she had anything else to say about dating in 2026, Kaley replied, “I’m okay with being single.”