Does Plenty of Fish Still Have Live Streaming?

No. Match Group, which owns Plenty of Fish, ended livestreaming in its dating apps, and TechCrunch reported that POF would stop livestreaming too. POF's help center lists Meet Me, Likes, messaging and Safety Toolbox features, and it does not describe a live stream feature.

The report came from TechCrunch, which covered Match Group's decision to end live streaming. Plenty of Fish belongs to Match Group, so the decision covered it.

If you remember streaming on POF and went looking for it, the feature is not missing because of a setting you turned off. The company stopped offering it.

Match Group's chief financial officer gave two reasons, and both are worth reading closely because they say something about how dating works.

The first is about behavior. He said livestreaming was suited to a pre-COVID world and that people have since shifted toward in-person dating. Put plainly, men and women wanted to meet each other face to face, and a stream was a poor substitute for that.

The second is about money. He said livestreaming had a revenue share cost to livestreamers. Scaling it profitably, he said, would need a significant amount of investment for a significant number of years. The company decided it was not worth the bet.

The features POF's help center lists are the ones that lead to a meeting.

Meet Me is where you swipe through people. Likes let you tell someone you are interested. Messaging lets you talk once you are connected. And the Safety Toolbox holds the tools for blocking, reporting and verifying yourself.

None of those depend on you being on camera in front of an audience. They are all aimed at getting two people to the point where they decide to meet.

The CFO's point about in-person dating is the useful part for you.

If one of the biggest dating companies concluded that its users wanted to meet in person, then the thing worth practicing is the move from the app to a real evening. Streaming a conversation to strangers does nothing for that. A good first message, a few warm exchanges and a specific invitation do.

That matches how a dating coach teaches online dating. The app is a way of finding women, and it should not be where the relationship happens. You do not need weeks of messages. Once a woman is replying warmly and asking you questions back, suggest a specific place and a specific evening.

Since there is no live stream, spend your time on the parts that carry the result.

Start with your photos, because women judge you by your weakest one. Use clear pictures with your face easy to see and nobody else in the frame. Then be selective in Meet Me. An app that watches a man say yes to nearly everyone concludes he has no standards, so swipe right only on women you would genuinely ask out.

When a Mutual Match comes in, write to her that day. Pick one real detail from her page, say something about it, and end on a question she can answer in a single line. "Hey" gives her nothing to work with.

A man who wants to see a woman on video before a date, to check she is real, has a reasonable need, and there are simpler ways to meet it.

Suggest a short call before you meet, ten minutes at most, framed lightly: "I'm better on the phone than over text. Want to talk for ten minutes tonight?" It shows you whether she looks and sounds like her pictures and whether you enjoy talking to her. It also saves you an evening with someone you would not have picked.

A woman who is interested is usually glad to do it. One who flatly refuses has told you something useful.

Since the point is to meet, plan the meeting with some care. a dating coach's first rule for online dates is to make the location near your place. He ranks it above choosing a nice venue and above what is convenient for her.

The reasoning is practical. A date close to home is easy to arrange, easy to cut short or extend, and easy to follow with whatever comes next. A long trip to her side of the city makes the whole evening harder to control.

So when you suggest the drink, name a place you know near where you live, and offer a day that suits you. A specific plan is easier to say yes to than an open question about when she is free.