Beyond analyzed 15 months of anonymized user data to uncover how people actually date when given the freedom to be themselves.
Ask most people to picture a dating app user, and they'll imagine someone swiping through profiles looking for "the one." But on Beyond, a vetted community for modern relationships, the data tells a radically different story.
After analyzing over 1.2 million swipes from January 2025 through early 2026, one finding stands out above the rest: only one in three people being swiped on identifies as heterosexual.
Here's the full breakdown of sexual orientation among Beyond's active user base:
This isn't a niche finding. These numbers represent thousands of real people actively dating. And they suggest that when people feel safe to express their full identity - in a community that welcomes it - the "default" looks very different from what mainstream apps assume.
Beyond's data challenges another assumption: that most people on dating apps are looking for traditional, monogamous relationships.
On Beyond, relationship style preferences break down like this:
That means nearly 9 out of 10 swipes on Beyond involve someone whose stated preference is something other than strictly monogamous. "Exploring" and "monogamish" - terms that barely existed in dating culture five years ago - now represent more activity than monogamy itself.
This doesn't mean monogamy is disappearing. It means that when people have the language and the space to define what they actually want, many choose something more nuanced than a binary.
Here's a number that should make every dating app take notice:
Beyond's positive swipe rate is 44%.
For context, Tinder's right-swipe rate is widely estimated at 14-17% for men and slightly higher for women. Bumble and Hinge hover in similar ranges.
On Beyond, nearly half of all swipes are positive. That's not because the bar is lower. It's because the community is vetted. Every member goes through an application process before being approved. The result: when people actually want to be there - and know everyone else does too - they engage more genuinely.
Over 15 months of data, that 44% like rate held remarkably steady month over month, suggesting it's a structural feature of curated communities, not a fluke.
Perhaps the most surprising trend in Beyond's data: group conversations are overtaking one-on-one messaging.
In January 2025, roughly 35% of conversations initiated on Beyond were group chats. By late 2025, that number had climbed to nearly 50%. In early 2026, group conversations actually exceeded individual ones for the first time.
This tracks with what Beyond's community has been saying anecdotally: modern daters - especially those in ENM (ethical non-monogamy) and polyamorous relationships - often prefer meeting in group settings first. It feels safer, more social, and less like a high-pressure interview.
The rise of group conversation in dating may be one of the most underreported shifts in how people connect. While mainstream apps are still optimizing for the 1-on-1 match, Beyond's users are naturally gravitating toward something more communal.
Beyond's geographic data reveals the cities leading the charge in modern relationship culture:
Los Angeles (the clear capital of open dating)
Brooklyn
Manhattan
Miami
San Francisco
Chicago
San Diego
Austin
LA and NYC dominate, but the spread to cities like Miami, Austin, Las Vegas, and San Diego suggests that modern relationship styles are going mainstream far beyond the coasts.
One feature unique to Beyond is the ability to create pair profiles - where couples can date together as a unit. Hundreds of couples have used this feature to date together as a unit.
The very existence of this data is significant. No mainstream dating app tracks or supports couple profiles at this level. It's a data point that simply doesn't exist anywhere else - and it represents a growing segment of the dating population that's been entirely ignored by the industry.
Beyond's data paints a picture of a dating world that's far more diverse, fluid, and communal than what mainstream apps suggest. The findings point to three major shifts:
These insights come from a highly engaged community. As platforms like Beyond grow, they'll continue generating the kind of data that's been missing from the conversation about how people actually date today - especially those whose relationship styles have been invisible on mainstream apps.
Beyond is a vetted community for modern relationships. All data in this report is anonymized and aggregated. No individual user data is shared or identifiable. Data covers January 2025 through March 2026, iOS platform.
About Beyond Beyond is an approval-based dating community designed for people who date differently. Whether you're exploring ethical non-monogamy, polyamory, or simply want a more intentional dating experience, Beyond provides a vetted space where modern relationships thrive. Learn more at datebeyond.co.
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