Meta adds AI chat assistant and Meet Cute to Facebook Dating

Meta is adding an AI-powered chat assistant and a weekly surprise-match feature to Facebook Dating in a bid to help users find partners and blunt so-called swipe fatigue, the company announced on Monday. The dating assistant will appear in the Matches tab and, along with a new feature called Meet Cute, will begin rolling out gradually to users in the United States and Canada, Meta said.

The chat assistant, which Meta described as a tool that "gives you personalized help on your dating journey," is designed to let users search for and refine matches with natural-language prompts. Meta offered the example "Find me a Brooklyn girl in tech" to illustrate how the assistant can surface profiles that fit more specific or idiosyncratic preferences than traditional filters. The company also said the assistant can help users improve their profiles and suggest date ideas. Meet Cute will provide a weekly surprise match chosen by Meta's personalized matching algorithm; users can opt out at any time.

Meta framed both features as responses to user fatigue with endless swiping. The company said matches among adults ages 18 to 29 have grown year over year, with "hundreds of thousands" in that...