The dating app landscape is undergoing its most significant transformation since the swipe feature revolutionized online dating. After years of endless scrolling, superficial matches, and disappointing follow-through, a new wave of platforms is challenging everything we thought we knew about digital connection. Business Insider recently declared that "the new era of dating has arrived," and featured Beyond alongside 23 other innovative apps reshaping how people meet and connect in 2025.
This isn't just another trend piece about dating apps. It's confirmation of what millions of frustrated daters already know: the swipe-based model is broken, and modern relationships demand modern solutions. The article highlights a crucial shift happening right now—people are moving beyond traditional dating apps toward intentional, community-driven platforms that prioritize real connection over algorithmic matching.
For Beyond, being featured in this Business Insider roundup isn't just press—it's validation that the future of dating looks radically different from its past.
When Business Insider set out to map the emerging dating landscape, they identified 24 new apps launched since 2020 that represent genuine alternatives to the Tinder-Hinge-Bumble trifecta. The article's central thesis is clear: daters are abandoning doom-scrolling for platforms that offer AI-powered matchmaking, in-person meetups, and most importantly, communities built around shared values and relationship styles.
The Business Insider feature describes Beyond as "a self-described 'social club for modern dating'" that caters to "the 'monogamish' crowd of daters who seek relationships that aren't traditional." This framing is crucial—it positions Beyond not as a niche player, but as part of a broader cultural movement toward relationship authenticity and diversity.
The article categorizes the new dating ecosystem into several key themes: AI-powered matching, anti-swiping mechanics, in-person connection prioritization, and affinity-based communities. Beyond falls squarely into this final category, alongside apps that let users filter by astrology, Myers-Briggs type, or specific relationship philosophies. But where Beyond stands apart is in its comprehensive approach—combining a vetted membership model with user-generated events and group chats that foster genuine community, not just isolated matches.
What's particularly telling is the article's tone. Business Insider isn't treating these new dating apps as experimental outliers. They're presenting them as credible alternatives for people actively seeking "love, sex, or new relationships of any kind" in an era where traditional apps have lost their luster.
The rise of new dating apps isn't happening in a vacuum. It's a direct response to what researchers and dating experts are calling "swipe fatigue"—a phenomenon where the endless scroll of potential matches creates paralysis rather than possibility.
Recent data shows that the average dating app user swipes through hundreds of profiles weekly, yet struggles to convert matches into meaningful conversations, let alone actual dates. The gamification of dating has created a behavioral pattern where people treat potential partners like consumable content—always one swipe away from "someone better."
The numbers tell a stark story. Despite millions of users on platforms like Tinder and Hinge, satisfaction rates continue to decline. People report feeling burned out, commodified, and increasingly skeptical that apps designed to maximize engagement time actually care about getting users into relationships. The algorithm rewards activity, not outcomes.
The intentional dating movement represents a collective awakening. People are prioritizing quality over quantity, seeking platforms where matches are curated rather than infinite, and where the goal is getting offline and into real life as quickly as possible.
Beyond traditional monogamy, there's a growing recognition that relationship structures themselves need to evolve. The language of "ethical non-monogamy" or "ENM" can feel clinical or exclusionary. That's why Beyond's positioning around "modern relationships" resonates—it's inclusive language that welcomes everyone from the curious to the deeply experienced, without requiring users to fit into rigid labels or categories.
What daters want in 2025 isn't revolutionary—it's fundamental. They want authenticity. They want community. They want to feel safe exploring who they are and what they truly desire, without judgment or pressure to conform. Most importantly, they want platforms built by people who understand these needs, not just tech companies optimizing for user retention metrics.
Beyond isn't trying to be another dating app. It's building something fundamentally different: a vetted social club where modern relationships can flourish.
The application requirement isn't about exclusivity for its own sake—it's about intention. Everyone who joins Beyond goes through an approval process, which immediately filters for people who are serious about showing up authentically. This single design choice transforms the entire user experience. Instead of endless strangers, you're entering a curated community of like-minded individuals.
The platform supports user-generated events and group chats, creating multiple pathways to connection beyond the standard one-on-one match. Want to meet people at a conscious dance event? Interested in joining a discussion about attachment styles? Curious about polyamory but not sure where to start? Beyond's community-first approach means these conversations and experiences happen organically, within a container that prioritizes safety, respect, and genuine connection.
This is the antidote to algorithmic dating. Instead of an app deciding who you should meet based on surface-level data points, you're empowered to explore connections across a community that shares your values.
The term "modern relationships" is doing important cultural work. It signals openness without requiring disclosure. It invites exploration without demanding commitment to any particular identity or structure. Whether you're monogamous and simply want more conscious partnership, polyamorous and seeking community, or somewhere in between, Beyond creates space for you.
This matters because relationship diversity is becoming normalized faster than language can keep up. A recent study found that nearly one in five Americans have engaged in some form of consensual non-monogamy, and among younger generations, that number is significantly higher. Yet many dating platforms still operate as if monogamy is the only valid relationship structure, forcing users into boxes that don't reflect their lived experience.
Beyond's approach recognizes that modern relationships exist on a spectrum, and that what works for one person may not work for another. The platform allows users to filter by relationship style, creating transparency from the start and reducing the friction that comes from mismatched expectations.
Beyond is part of a larger movement reshaping how people meet and connect. Across the dating landscape, entrepreneurs and innovators are building alternatives to the swipe-based status quo.
The Business Insider feature highlights several platforms prioritizing in-person meetups over digital exchanges. Apps like Court IRL check users into venues to see who else is open to connecting. Drinks First hosts events that bring strangers together face-to-face. First Round's On Me rewards in-person connection with redeemable points at bars and restaurants.
This trend toward real-life experiences reflects a fundamental truth: chemistry happens in three dimensions. You can't assess someone's energy, humor, or presence through a profile. The most meaningful connections often emerge from shared experiences, not shared swipes.
Beyond's user-generated events tap into this insight. When members organize their own gatherings—whether it's a hiking group, a workshop on communication, or a dinner party for polyamorous folks—they're creating opportunities for organic connection that no algorithm could replicate. These experiences build community, which in turn creates a sense of belonging that traditional dating apps can never provide.
The dating innovation space has historically been male-dominated, which has shaped product design in problematic ways. Whitney Wolfe Herd's creation of Bumble—where women make the first move—demonstrated that female founders bring fundamentally different perspectives to dating products.
Beyond continues this lineage. The platform's emphasis on safety, consent, and community reflects a design philosophy that centers user wellbeing over growth metrics. The language choices, the vetting process, the community features—these aren't just product decisions, they're values in action.
This matters because dating platforms have real-world impact on how people relate to each other. Products built with empathy and lived experience create better outcomes than products optimized solely for engagement. As more female founders enter the dating space, we're seeing platforms that actually serve users' needs rather than exploiting their loneliness or insecurity.
The Business Insider feature isn't just documenting a trend—it's capturing a cultural inflection point. The post-swipe era has arrived, and with it comes new possibilities for how we meet, connect, and build relationships.
Beyond's inclusion in this landscape-defining article validates what the platform has been building: a community where modern relationships can thrive without apology or compromise. Where curiosity is welcomed. Where people can be honest about who they are and what they want. Where connection happens through shared experience, not just mutual attraction.
This is what the future of dating looks like—intentional, community-driven, and built for the full spectrum of human relationship. The swipe era taught us what doesn't work. Now it's time to build what does.
Ready to experience dating beyond the swipe? Learn more about Beyond's vetted community at datebeyond.co.
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