For years, modern dating in Australia has been defined by endless swiping, the rise of the situationship and, of course, ghosting. Keeping your options open was made easy by dating apps and the seemingly endless number of people to scroll past, and finding “the one” suddenly became dramatically harder.
Dating apps can feel like shopping, and you are likely to be pickier on an app than in real life, where you’d give someone the respect and time you wouldn’t online.
Could the end of meaningless swiping be near?
However, in 2026, this seems to be changing, as new research by Coffee Meets Bagel (CMB), in partnership with YouGov, has found that Aussies are shifting away from casual connections, with 59 per cent (almost 6 in 10) of singles saying they are dating to marry.
Despite this promising statistic, four in 10 also believe finding a long-term partner is harder than landing a professional job. The disconnect says a lot about modern dating: people still want lasting relationships, but the path to finding one has never felt harder.
In Australia, in particular, there is a major issue where men seemingly aren’t even trying to ask someone out.
Speaking to WHO, Jason Teo, Head of Product at CMB, says, “The interesting thing about Australia is that a lot of them are dating app experts – many of them have multiple accounts and multiple paying subscriptions. They’re veterans, and that’s not common in many other markets.”
What does the future of dating look like?
CMB makes things a little different for daters – at midday you get your small, curated daily dose of matches, inactive chats expire after seven days, and ‘bagel notes’ encourage users to send a thoughtful and specific message to the person’s profile when sending a like, rather than something generic.
AI comes to the rescue here to suggest more thoughtful messages to send. For example, you may see a photo of someone with their dog, and the suggestion might be: “Be honest, does your dog need to approve of all your matches?”
What CMB noticed was that people are spending time scrolling through the AI suggestions to get ideas to write their own more creative first message.
Speaking about intentional dating, Teo added that bagel notes have led to people taking more time to look at a person’s profile.
Before this, they realised that people were swiping less because they only wanted to give so much time and energy to so many people, but then CMB began to see a problem – people couldn’t think of something interesting to say.
What is the difference between all these dating apps?
Speaking about CMB’s competitors like Bumble and Hinge, for example, Teo explained that they want you to stay on the app and mindlessly swipe, but CMB doesn’t believe that’s actually helpful.
”That gets you tired, we want you to interact, we want you to show who you are,” he said. “As a result [CMB daters] swipe less, but each one becomes a lot more meaningful, and the conversations get deeper.”
Another new feature they introduced was ‘Real Dates’, where after five days of chatting, the daters will get a nudge to go on a date, reminding them to get off the app. They then receive the option to send a poll to the other person with options for a first date, making planning a date incredibly easy.
Plus, if you join CMB and say you’re not looking for something serious, you’re directed to their competitors – it doesn’t get more intentional than that.
Should you pay for a dating app subscription?
According to Teo, CMB has more free users than paid users, and paying doesn’t necessarily change your success rate.
“There are a lot of things that go into success, including the quality of your profile – how you respond and so on. I think it is probably just a little bit faster if you are paid because we show you your profile more to other people,” he shared. “If you are a woman, you get to immediately see everybody who likes you, so that you can pick, right?
“But you know, actually, a lot of the times we choose paid and non-paid features. It’s not necessarily to kind of restrict success.”
He shared that it’s not uncommon for women to receive hundreds of likes “literally overnight”, but they found that if they show the woman all of those likes for free, it’s a very overwhelming feeling. It’s not something they usually get excited about.
“It’s more like, ‘Oh wow, I’m overwhelmed, I don’t know what to do. You shut down, and you don’t get success,” adding that it becomes like a full-time job in itself – no thank you!
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