Amid the coronavirus lockdown, single people everywhere have turned to dating apps. Whether they are bored and stuck at home, in search of their other halves or perhaps just looking for something different – it’s no surprise that there’s been an increase in the usage of dating apps. According to Dating.com, online dating has been up by 82% globally since March.

But what makes a dating profile attractive? It seems that introducing your furry best friend before the first date is a popular trend on dating apps, specifically Bumble. Pets, most often cats and dogs, have started to make their way into people’s profiles.

Wear your heart on your sleeve

Bumble is well-known for “badges” on the dating app that allow users to filter their prospective matches quickly and effectively. A few of these badges include values and lifestyle choices such as religion, politics, pets, fitness and even astrology signs. Bumble has a “pet badge” that allows people to display their interest in pets on their profiles. Users can also specify the type of pets they have, want or don’t want. Options include cat(s), dog(s), none, lots or “don’t want.” So, if you’re a cat or dog lover, you probably don’t want to swipe right on someone who puts “don’t want” under the pet badge options on their profile.

A Bumble representative told TMS that they’ve noticed a correlation with people being at home and spending more time with their pets to then including them on their dating profile. More than four million Bumble users around the world have included the pet badge in their profiles since March 13, which is when a State of Emergency was declared in the United States in response to the pandemic crisis. Approximately three million of those Bumble users added a dog badge and nearly one million added a cat badge to their profiles.

On the dating app itself, there are currently 16 million users who are dog owners and four million users who are cat owners. Contrary to popular belief – the “Cat Lady” stereotype – cat owners are not mostly female. In fact, on Bumble, the numbers of male and female cat owners are pretty even.

Fido can help you find love

A number of couples on Bumble have immediately connected and bonded over their love for dogs through the dog badge. Many singles have even brought their dogs on a first or second date because they believe dogs are a good judge of a person’s character.

Our Bumble source also shared with us quite a few love stories that were sparked from singles using pet badges on their profiles.

Katy, an Arizona native, met Andrew on Bumble in November 2017. Katy was understandably anxious about meeting someone new for the first time on Bumble. But when she came across Andrew’s profile, she saw that his profile photo featured himself and his little German Shepherd puppy. Katy, being a dog-lover herself, used that to her advantage as a conversation starter. Andrew responded and stated that he was currently accepting dog mom applications. So Katy made sure to let him know that she needed to learn more about the dog owner before submitting her application. They spent the next few days getting to know one another via Bumble.

Six months into dating, they moved in together, and a year later they were officially engaged. Although their wedding has been postponed due to the pandemic, Katy and Andrew are looking forward to celebrating their next milestone in life together by purchasing their dream home – specifically, one that has a giant yard for their dog, Mia – also known as the puppy featured in Andrew’s Bumble photo.

Although the pandemic has kept us apart and made dating more complicated, it seems our feline and canine counterparts are helping to bring us back together.

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