If you have sworn off Tinder because you just aren't having any luck, Facebook may soon be the answer to your problems.
During the keynote address at Facebook's annual F8 developer conference on Tuesday, CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that the social media giant will launch a dating feature. Zuckerberg swears that the feature is nothing like all those other online dating options. "This is going to be for building real, long-term relationships, not just hook-ups," he said. The purpose of the F8 conference is to announce new hardware or developer tools from the company.
The feature is designed to match Facebook users with other people who they are not friends with on the site, reports CNBC. Users will be able to build a dating profile with the opt-in feature that their friends are not able to view. They will be connected with others who share similar interests on Facebook or have attended the same events.
During the F8 conference, Chief Product Officer Chris Cox said, "It mirrors the way people actually date, which is usually at events and institutions that they're connected to."
Users of the opt-in feature will also be able to launch private text-only messages outside of Facebook or WhatsApp.
This announcement came after months of dealing with the Cambridge Analytica data leak. Zuckerberg said at the conference that the company plans to "keep building, even while we focus on keeping people safe." While homing in on user privacy, Facebook is also taking steps to crack down on fake news. Their latest strategy is to simply decrease the actual size of news stories that have been flagged as false. A Facebook spokesperson on Friday said the company will "reduce the visual prominence of feed stories that are fact-checked false."
