9 Women On The Highs & Lows Of Dating During The Pandemic

Dating is hard. Dating during COVID-19 is excruciating. Maybe you feel like you’re living through a Groundhog Day of tired Bumble banter; or you’re dying for a meetup, but your quarantine crush is too nervous for a socially distanced walk; or even though you've never crossed paths with your Grindr match IRL, you feel like you're falling in love. 

Because there’s not much else to do in quarantine, dating can also feel all-consuming. There were more swipes and initial reactions on Tinder on March 29 than any other day in the app’s history (over 3 billion). More messages, too; 16% more on Bumble globally the last week of April compared to the first week of lockdown. Single folks are also talking on the phone way more: Bumble now offers a virtual dating badge for your profile if you’re up for a face-to-face convo, while Grindr launched Circles, which allows 20 users in the same country to group chat.

How many love connections that come out of these virtual connections remains to be seen. In the meantime, here's what nine women had to say about dating during the pandemic.