Fed up with swiping, Gen Z students are letting an AI pick their dates

Key points

• Ditto has collected 150,000 sign-ups since launching at a small number of US colleges.
• About 20% of matched pairs actually go on a date, which the founders say compares favourably to swipe-based apps.
• The service raised $9.2 million in seed funding from investors including Gradient and Peak XV.
• Users interact entirely by text message; there is no app to download.
• Safety currently relies on university email verification, which limits Ditto to campuses for now.

Swiping left and right is exhausting. Most matches never speak. Most conversations never become dates. A lot of young people have simply stopped bothering.

Ditto thinks it has an answer. The service, founded by former UC Berkeley students Allen Wang and Eric Liu, acts as an AI matchmaker, the kind of software that learns what you are looking for and makes choices on your behalf. There is no app to download. You join by texting a special iMessage number with a code, chat with a bot that asks about your personality and preferences, and then wait. Every Wednesday at 7 PM, Ditto texts you a match, a time, and a place. Your only job is to show up.

How does the matching actually work?

Ditto does not just pair people who share hobbies. It looks at what those hobbies suggest about a person's character.

"If there's this guy who's really into rock climbing and skydiving, and this girl who's into hip hop and skateboarding, those don't look similar on the surface," co-founder Allen Wang told TechCrunch. "But deeper down, both are very adventurous. That's the core reason people find chemistry."

Some users even text photos of their celebrity crushes so the algorithm can pick up on physical preferences. After each date, Ditto collects feedback and refines its picture of what each person actually wants.

Is it safe to go on a date arranged this way?

For now, yes, with one important caveat: the service only works at universities where students verify a .edu email address. That means you know the person you are meeting is a real student at your own institution. It is a meaningful layer of trust that most dating apps do not have.

The harder question is what happens when Ditto expands beyond campuses, which it says it plans to do. Scaling that kind of verification is something even well-funded, established dating platforms have struggled with. Ditto has $9.2 million in seed funding to work on the problem, but it is still early.

Twenty percent of matched pairs go on an actual date. That number sounds modest until you recall how rarely a Tinder match becomes a real meeting. The founders argue removing the messaging stage, where most interest dies, is precisely the point.

Ditto now has twelve full-time employees and is based in San Francisco. It has attracted attention partly through irreverent marketing, including videos of robot stunts, which Wang says get students to look. A good first date, he adds, is what makes them stay.

Common questions

Do I need a smartphone app to use Ditto?

No. Ditto runs entirely through iMessage. You text a number, answer questions from a bot, and receive your match by text each Wednesday.

Can anyone sign up, or only college students?

Right now Ditto is limited to students at a select number of US universities, verified by a .edu email address. The company says it is working out how to expand more broadly while keeping safety checks in place.

What if I do not want to go on a date one week?

The founders have not described an opt-out mechanism publicly, but because the service runs through text, users can simply not respond to a match without deleting an account.