Facebook Starts Testing Its New Dating Feature Internally

• After announcing a new dating service for users at the F8 conference, Facebook is now internally testing the new feature before release.
• App researcher Jane Manchun Wong identified source code that is linked to the dating service and revealed details about the feature.
• Facebook confirmed that they are preparing the feature for release by testing it with Facebook employees.

Facebook announced its dating service at the F8 developer conference earlier this year, and latest reports reveal that it has gone into the testing phase already. Jane Manchung Wong, who is an independent app researcher, revealed that the social media company is internally testing the dating service with its employees and the feature is currently closed to the public.

Facebook later confirmed the same and revealed that the testing is restricted to only employees who opted in for dogfooding the product. A spokesperson stated “The purpose of this dogfooding is to test the end-to-end product experience for bugs and confusing UI. This is not meant for dating your coworkers.”

Facebook is internally testing Facebook Dating.

I can't go past the signup screen because they are not activating all non-employee Dating profiles because, well, it's "pre-launch" 😉 pic.twitter.com/VQFHUJIkuX

— Jane Manchun Wong (@wongmjane) August 3, 2018

Employees are using fake profiles to test the service, and all data will be deleted before the public launch. Users will receive the ability to set up their dating profiles that are based around gender preferences and location. App researcher Jane Manchun Wong was able to find the currently internal feature by scouring the source code but was unable to sign up successfully.

Dating profiles on Facebook will be separate from user profiles on the platform. Users who use the dating service will be allowed to contact each other only if there’s a match between two users. Users who attend nearby events will be more visible to each other as an attempt to generate more offline connections and long-term relationships that go beyond digital contact only.

The release of the service has not been confirmed by the social media company, and the feature may be killed off before ever releasing. The dating service will be built into Facebook and will not be released as a standalone app. Facebook has the potential to make an impact in the social dating scene and compete against the likes of Tinder and OkCupid.

What do you think about the new dating feature? Let us know in the comments below. Also, to get instant tech updates, follow TechNadu’s Facebook page, and Twitter handle.