I wouldn’t say that apps have killed dating, more that there are fewer public third spaces to run into a potential partner coupled with far too many people wanting a quick and easy fix (like an app) for finding such places; the times I’ve seen people throw their hands up and declare it impossible to meet people because they find it difficult to google things in their area is concerning.

I met my partner on a furry dating app. Since it’s a community-driven app, there’s no mechanics like swiping or paid features, you simply get a list of users sorted by distance and a bunch of filters such as last activity on the app, age, sexual orientation and so on.

Since it’s a furry app, you also rarely see what the person actually looks like, generally you’d find that out after you’ve talked for a while and decide to meet or share pictures. Instead you see their fursona, the character they created to represent themselves in that community.

All of that to say dating on that app was greatly successful vs the regular dating apps I tried, most likely because it’s not a profit driven app so it’s not trying to keep users endlessly dating. It’s not really helpful for non-furries but I imagine other internet communities could build their own version of such an app.