Abstract

I use in-depth interviews and a new national survey to examine how people use phone dating apps (such as Tinder and Grindr), how often they use them, and why. Gay men are the most active users of the phone dating apps. Unpartnered heterosexual adults do not use phone dating apps very often and meet few new partners through apps. According to the survey data, more than 80% of unpartnered heterosexual adults have not gone on any dates or met any new people in the past 12 months, which suggests that being unpartnered is a more stable status for heterosexual adults than previously thought.