The Way Virtual Reality Is Changing the Dating Industry

If you are still dating around trying to find your loved one in Tinder, VR power is going to become the next big thing. How will it change your relationships? The dating industry has undergone significant changes during the last few decades. If earlier people met their loved ones at work or in the street, today you just tap a few buttons, and the Internet provides thousands of profiles you might like: you only have to choose.

There are dedicated services helping men and women find each other with various options allowing them to learn more about the person before meeting in real life (if meeting at all). For example, in a snapsext review, you can read about one of such websites, and namely, this one is focused on casual dating and people with no serious intentions.

The progress has really gone very far, and it keeps moving forward at a rapid pace. With the ability to communicate and see each other over long distances, people have received more options for dating and building their relationships. One of them becomes a virtual reality that seems like the next logical step in the development of the dating industry:

• various dating groups in social networks schedule blind dates between its members;
• VR simulation helps to practice and improve people`s communication skills and flirting;
• VR porn has already brought the adult entertainment industry lots of money.

For those people who are trying to date someone being on the long-distance, the benefits of VR are obvious. If even such apps as Facetime, Facebook, and Skype that allow communicating over video calls are so popular and trustable, virtual reality is likely to be the next big thing in the dating industry. What makes this technology so attractive to people, and how will it impact the dating industry over the years?

From face-to-face to Virtual Reality

Almost half of all Americans today choose online dating when looking for relationships, thus contributing over $3 billion to the industry development yearly. By the next year, this number is likely to grow by 25%, taking into account the pandemic situation worldwide. Online dating is no longer considered as the last chance to find your loved one but becomes a really convenient way of meeting the person with the same interests and creating a healthy relationship, not spending too much time searching. The statistics prove this statement: one-third of marriages in the US started online.

Such apps as Tinder have flooded the market, helping people to find the one easily and with no headache: you browse through different profiles while the service also matches you with those who may be the right fit. Of course, this method is not perfect: more than 53% of people tend to provide false information about their appearance or job, which makes one of five users really disappointed with their online dating experience. However, this method still works.

Technologies have revolutionized the way we find partners, and one of the recent tech advancements allowing people to socialize in the virtual space becomes VR: it promotes remote social interaction with the ability to see, smell and even touch the person you are talking to. A VR date should become a more intense and personal experience compared to the options we have now as it invokes the actual presence of the person and blurs the boundaries of virtual and real worlds.

According to different studies, we can expect to go on full-sensory virtual dates by 2040. Just imagine: with so many miles away, you can still go on a romantic walk (for example, in Milan), see a movie together, attend a concert of your favorite band, or surf in the ocean. VR provides unlimited spaces and unique experiences that people can share (the only limit is your imagination), thus becoming a powerful instrument and a low-risk way to find love and make it blossom in virtual reality.

Technical Aspects of Using VR

Here are some interesting facts to know about VR presence on the market right now:

• It has been six long years since the founder of Oculus claimed virtual reality to transform the world and gave a push to its development;
• All these years, such tech giants as Facebook, Google, Sony, and Samsung have been competing trying to deliver the headsets of high quality for their customers;
• With the rise of the COVID-19 pandemic, the demand in VR devices has increased a few times, and currently, the sales of VR sets are higher than could have been expected.

Virtual reality allows users to immerse in a digital 3D space and not just watch events happening on display but take part in them. With the help of computer-generated visuals and content, you have simulated real-life presence experience with all your senses involved (hearing, sight, and touch). The technology requires three key components: your smartphone or laptop, a user device (oculus, gloves, headsets, etc.), and a source of content. The main goal of both hardware and special programs is to provide the most natural and realistic image of high quality as well as the possibility to interact with it.

One of the biggest challenges is to make the human brain believe that it is really happening. To achieve the flawless effect, the software should have the field of view and pixel resistance, deal with motion delay, set image resolution, control refresh rate, and synchronize audio and video. It also requires:

• Eye-tracking. The direction of the user`s eyes is tracked inside virtual space, which allows providing much deeper and thus more realistic view;
• Head tracking. The device (headsets and oculus) follow the head movements using a gyroscope, LEDs, and accelerometer to avoid lags between real-life movements and those ones in simulation;
• Motion tracking. With several degrees of freedom, you will have an option to look and move around with no limits in your opportunities. It is achieved with the help of sensors and cameras set on your device and body.

Right now, there are many tech issues holding VR back from being perfect, but sooner or later, it will overcome all of them, becoming a great dating instrument and collecting millions of investments.

VR Dating today: Real and Virtual Opportunities

Even though this technology is still developing and mainly used for gaming, people can already start exploring its benefits. There is a great number of VR apps available for single people on the market: they can be used both for finding your couple and just practicing communication and dating skills with people all over the globe. Couples can spend a date in some exotic place, have dinner at the top of the Eiffel tower or watch the sunset on the beach. Here is how Samantha describes her first VR experience: «On my first date we were sitting in a satellite and enjoyed it floating above the earth. The view was wonderful and the date went very well overall, although I felt really weird when I took my Oculus off».

Other people who have already tried VR dating state that it is an entirely new scenario of how they can start, build, and maintain their relationships. There are over 51 million VR users in the US, and the lockdown only boosts the need for virtual dating experiences. The shipment of VR sets is likely to reach 6,5 million units this year, and by 2025, it is forecasted to increase by 77% to 36 million. The great thing is that trying VR, you are not limited in choice with those people who already have the device: many companies allow renting it until VR becomes more common and affordable.

Just like in the case with the invention of the telephone, development of the Internet, and popularity of online dating, which used to be a taboo, VR is going to become the norm in the future: it will not replace the current ways of communication but become a powerful tool to complement and improve the dating experience. Even though VR cannot be underestimated when it comes to building relationships on long-distance, it won`t necessarily mean the end of human intimacy and real-life interaction. Instead, it becomes a life-saver for couples that are far apart as well as a safe space for different experiments. Just imagine how big the opportunities are for the pornography field, for example. This is the next big thing that will revolutionize the entire dating industry.

The Future of VR Dating

VR has just entered the sphere of dating and already made many couples much happier. Still, there are a lot of things to do to improve this experience and create a perfect virtual space with unlimited opportunities. Fixing all the issues related to tech (for example, implementing peripheral vision) will help to deliver smooth interaction and trick our brain, making it believe in virtual events. In fact, in the nearest future, having good a imagination for creating a perfect virtual world will become as essential as today it is eye contact, flirting, and positive body language.

However, you should remember that VR capabilities will not help much if you fail to deal with the basics: dating and communication skills, the ability to charm a person, the ability to impress and build healthy relationships from day one. If you don’t work on it first, the chance is that VR will make things even worse.