Social network Facebook adds audio dates feature

Users will be able to send an invitation to their match to start an audio date after validation

Facebook has added some new features, including ‘audio dates’ to its Dating app with an aim to make virtual dating more interesting and useful.

Audio dates will let users start an audio conversation with somebody they match with, according to The Verge. The report said on Tuesday that when you try to start a call with someone, the other person will receive an invitation. If they accept, you both can have a chat.

The social network is also allowing users to set up two additional places in Facebook Dating where they want to look for matches.

The Match Anywhere feature should make it easier to match up with people who may be temporarily working or living in different places or frequently travelling between them.

The company is also launching a feature called Lucky Pick, which enables daters to consider other compatible candidates who may be outside their typical preferences, citing Facebook communications staffer Alexandru Voica, the report said.

Users will be able to send an invitation to their “match” to start an “audio date” after validation. The Bumble dating application already offers video chats and calls between matches, while Tinder also tested this option on its own application with the “Face to Face” last July.

The “Face to Face” feature of Tinder allows its users to activate the international mode to match anywhere in the world.

Facebook Dating is not the company’s only dating app — in April, Facebook’s NPE Team, which builds experimental apps, released an app called Sparked that sets you up on four-minute video speed dates.

A previous report said that the free-to-use app offers no public profiles, no swiping and no direct messages (DMs) but a simple video speed-chat.