Millennials feed dating app craze

Melissa Ellard poses showing her Hinge profile on her iPhone, in Foxborough, Massachusetts. Ellard says she wouldn't have gone on a date in the past six months were it not for Hinge, a dating app whose promise hinges on its ability to hook you up with friends of friends. [Photo by Charles Krupa/Associated Press]

People raised on Google and social media now have the chance to do background checks on potential mates. Barbara Ortutay reports in NewYork.

So, a lady walks into a bar... Wait, scratch that. A lady takes out her phone. With a left swipe of her finger she dismisses Alex,25, and Robert, 48.She swipes right when a photo of James,24, pops up. James had swiped right, too. It's a match! They chat, and make plans to meet. After all, they're only 4 kilometers apart.

Welcome to the new world of dating. As the near-constant use of smartphones prolife rates and as people grow more comfortable with disclosing their locations, a new class of mobile dating applications is emerging that spans a range as broad as human desire itself.

Millennials, busy with school, jobs and social lives, say the apps save time and let users filter the undesirable, based on a few photos, words and Facebook connections. Unlike the dating websites of yore, with endless profiles to browse and lengthy messages to compose, newer apps offer a sense of immediacy and simplicity.

In the United States, online community Christian Mingle will "find God's match for you". Mobile application Hinge's promise hinges on its ability to hook you up with friends of friends.

Coffee Meets Bagel, meanwhile, will present you with just one potential mate at noon every day. Dattch, with a Pinterest-like interface, is for women seeking women. For men looking for men, there's Grindr, Jack'd, Scruff, Boyahoy and many more. Revealer will let you hear a person's voice and only show photos if you're both interested.

The darling dating app du jour for Americans is Tinder, helped by its simple interface, a host of celebrity users and a popularity boost from Sochi Olympic athletes who used it to hook up during the Winter Games.