There are five common steps that are consistent across most dating apps and sites. These are:
- Creating your profile
- Searching for other users
- Sending & Receiving Likes / Showing Your Interest
- Matching with prospective partners
- Messaging and communicating with your matches
Each of these aspects of dating apps are supported by the inclusion of one or more features that different apps offer (or not) for free – or include in premium subscriptions.
Further to the features that are directly related to these steps, there are other features that support various other aspects of the process through the provision of security, fake detection, third-party integrations (Facebook, Spotify etc), games, events, and more.
I have separated these features into five groups representing each of the steps and then two final groups of features related to security and the rest (other).
Features that Support the Five Steps
Profile Creation
 | Guided Profile Creation |
 | Comprehensive Profiles |
 | Profile Completeness Reports |
 | Shareable Profiles |
 | Profile Tags |
 | Prompts |
 | Personality Tests |
Sending / Receiving Likes
 | Send Likes |
 | See Likes |
 | Super Likes |
 | Like Tracking |
 | Boosts / Spotlights |
 | Limited Likes |
 | Rewind / Backtrack |
Messaging
 | Send Messages |
 | Read Messages |
 | Video Chat |
 | Send Video |
 | Read Receipts |
 | Send Images |
 | Instant Notifications |
 | Audio Chat |
Other Features / Problems
 | In-App Games |
 | Market Fragmentation |
 | Live Events |
 | Credits / Tokens System |
 | Facebook Integration |
 | Instagram Integration |
 | Spotify Integration |
 | Digital Gifting |
 | Affiliate Program |
 | Ads Displayed |
Searching / Filtering
 | Location Based Filters |
 | Profile Search |
 | Comprehensive Search Filters |
 | View Profile Photos |
 | Bidirectional Filters |
 | Location Changes / Travel Mode |
 | Type Learning / Match Profiling |
 | Dealbreaker Filters |
 | Willing to Relocate Filter |
 | Profile View Reporting |
Matching
 | Match on Mutual Likes |
 | Compatibility Scores |
 | Compatibility Quizzes |
 | Question Answer System |
 | Curated Matches |
Safety and Security
 | User Blocking |
 | Profile Verification – ID |
 | Profile Verification – Photo |
 | Profile Verification – Social Media |
 | Fake Profiles |
 | Location Lying |
 | User Reputation Monitoring |
 | Unmatched Profile Access |
 | User Match-Count reporting |