Facebook Dating is giving "FB official" a whole new meaning. The dating feature on Facebook, which launched last fall, is now rolling out to 14 more countries with a new tool called "Secret Crush" that lets you anonymously express interest in your FB friends. Kind of like a reimagined Facebook poke — the ultimate old-school flirting method.
Whereas other dating apps just connect you with friends of friends and strangers (with an occasional friend mixed in to make things weird), Secret Crush lets you connect with the people you already know who you might be interested in, but takes away the potential awkwardness of unreciprocated feelings.
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Here's how it works: Instead of swiping right, you can choose up to nine of your Facebook friends you're crushing on. If they have enabled Facebook Dating, they'll be notified that someone has a crush on them — but don't worry, they won't know who unless they add you back and there's a match.
Facebook Dating is now available in the Philippines, Vietnam, Singapore, Malaysia, Laos, Brazil, Peru, Chile, Bolivia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Uruguay, Guyana, Suriname, Colombia, Thailand, Canada, Argentina, and Mexico, and will be rolling out in the U.S. this year.
The service is accessible via the bookmarks tab within the main Facebook app and requires setting up a new profile specific to dating. Separate from the new Secret Crush feature, Facebook Dating works like other conventional dating apps and lets you browse and match with the profiles of strangers and non-friends as well. When it launched the dating service last year, Facebook reported that over 200 million of its users identify as single. So even if you don't have a crush on any of your current Facebook friends, you still might find "the one" on the social media site.