Dating Personals And Matchmaking Services

People looking for a romantic match have been using dating services longer than you might think.

Dating personals and matchmaking services have been around since the 17th century. That is when the first personal advertisement appeared in a British newspaper. After all, finding a partner isn’t as easy as it appears in a Hallmark movie.

But over the past 300 years, dating services have evolved as times and technology changed. Newspaper personals that were common not that many years ago are more or less unheard of today.

And in the 1980s, we began our first experiment with video dating. Take a look:

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The way this worked was members would record a video in the studio of the video dating service company. Then, you would have videos- meaning VHS tapes- that have been pre-screened for common interests mailed to members. If you liked it, a date would be coordinated.

Whether it’s the lighting, mustaches or awkward pickup lines, we know it’s not the best look.

But as we said, times and technology change. Just look at social media. Virtually all the most popular social apps began with static photos only but eventually adopted video as demand increased. This is just the world we live in.

We love video. It’s never been easier to take out our phone and record a video. We don’t even think about it.

And we have video for everything. If we miss a moment, we ask someone to do it again so we can get it on video this time.

And think about how we make phone calls. We can use video calling apps to have a video conversation on our phone at any time. There are many available but some of the most common and best video calling apps are FaceTime, Google Duo and Skype.

It’s what we use every day and what we expect.

But with most dating apps, you get a picture ala Facebook in 2004 or 2005. That’s a start, but it’s very limiting and doesn’t tell you the whole story.

With a video dating service, you truly see the person. Even in just 30 seconds. You see their personality better than you ever will in a staged (or filtered) photo. You see facial expressions. And you hear the person’s voice. It’s been well documented that a voice plays a very important role in deciding whether someone is a match or not. That is something a text simply cannot do.

Maybe the cringeworthy videos of the 1980s left a bad taste in your mouth, but that isn’t video dating today. New video dating apps like Zepeel are the next generation of online dating apps.

Zepeel is a video dating service that allows you to create a profile video showcasing your personality and what makes you unique. Potential matches get to see the real you. When you find a connection, you send them a personal video message. And that can evolve into a video chat if you sense a match.

We can have a video call on our smartphone using our favorite of the best video calling apps. We should have that same technology with online dating.

We shouldn’t be limited to just pictures.