Facebook announced a new dating feature for its platform at the F8 conference today, and it could lead to a bit of loving amongst your mates… eventually.
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Dubbed Secret Crushes, the feature will tie in with Facebook’s existing dating platform, which has already been launched in a handful of countries. It will allow users with a Facebook Dating profile to select a list of up to nine secret crushes from their friends list, and if anyone on that list also has a Facebook Dating profile, they’ll be sent a notification to say that someone they know has a crush on them.
If that person then creates their own Secret Crushes list and puts the original crush-haver on it, they’ll be “matched,” kinda like Tinder.
If someone on a Secret Crushes list hasn’t signed up for Facebook Dating, they won’t be notified about any appearance on any lists. If they are on Facebook Dating but don’t put the crush-haver on their own list, they’ll know someone has a crush on them, but they won’t know who.
Facebook’s dating platform is currently available in Colombia, Thailand, Canada, Argentina, and Mexico, with 14 new countries to be added today, but Australia is not among them. Facebook says the US will be added later this year, but when we’ll cop it here is unknown. We reached out to Facebook Australia for comment, but have not received a response.
A Facebook Dating profile is created upon sign up and contains less information than your regular Facebook profile. Rather than asking you to swipe around like other apps, it will give you questions to answer and prompt you to start conversations based on other people’s answers or photos. It also integrates with groups and events on the original platform.
If you’re keen on giving it a whirl, I’d wager Australia will get the feature not long after the US does, but we’ll just have to wait and see.
