Coronavirus | People in the U.S. went back to dating apps to find love

- Cameron Hope spent part of the coronavirus pandemic reflecting on aspects of her life which 'needed to be redone, said she. Her relationship status was one of them.

I always planning on having a serious relationship at this point, said Hope, 28. 'Then I was finally like, 'Oh, if I don't actually go out and look for it, then it's not going to happen.'

A lot of other singles went looking, too. The lifting of health restrictions in many parts of the U.S. this summer - now likely a big change - created a fleeting moment for online dating.

In July, engagement on dating apps in the U.S. reached a record high. Daily active users on the most popular dating apps, including Match Group Inc. s Tinder and Bumble Inc. s women-driven app, exceeded 15 million users, according to research firm Apptopia, which collected data in 2015.

But renewed concerns about Covid - 19, driven by the spread of the delta variant, could pose another setback to people's dating lives - and the businesses that benefit from them. Investors will get a look inside that dynamic when Match reports quarterly results after the closing of trading Tuesday. Dating apps took a hit early on during the pandemic when the virus was spreading rapidly and cities shuttered restaurants and bars, forcing people to stay home. 'People were isolated, they were lonely, they were scared, they were isolated, said Liesel Sharabi, an assistant professor at Arizona State UniversityArizona State University who studies communication in interpersonal relationships.

After a few months of isolation people slowly found their way back to dating apps. Tinder and Bumble changed by shifting part of their focus to helping people find friendships, not just lovers, and developing new video features and speed-dating games to keep users engaged. They also added an option to display vaccination status on their profiles for non-valiants.

Emma-Claire Ziolkowski, a dietitian from Virginia Beach, Virginia, said she reloaded Tinder and another popular app, Hinge, this year after having fully vaccinated and her home state lifted the major Covid restrictions.

After more than a year spent in front of screens, an app appeared like the natural place to look for love, Ziolkowski said. 'My favorite thing about dating apps is that you have access to people that you would not have had access to.