Gen Z daters want deeper connections, but some use AI to date, Hinge reports

Dating in 2025 isn't for the faint of heart, especially if you're a young adult. Between growing up online and coming of age during COVID lockdowns, Gen Z has a distinct experience finding love compared to any other generation.

The popular dating app Hinge has distilled some of this experience in the app's latest D.A.T.E. (Data, Advice, Trends, and Expertise) Report called Closing the Communication Gap, or the disconnect between the desire for deep conversations young daters have versus their hesitance to initiate them.

For this report, the app's research team, Hinge Labs, surveyed around 30,000 Hinge users globally this year.

Gen Z struggles to open up

Gen Z daters are 36 percent more hesitant than their millennial counterparts to initiate a deep conversation on the first date — meaning, going beyond small talk.

This aligns with previous research from Hinge. In 2024, Hinge found that Gen Z singles were 47 percent more likely to say the pandemic made them nervous to talk to new people, compared to millennials, and 25 percent more likely to say the pandemic made them less confident on a first date.

Now, at the near-end of 2025, 35 percent of all Hinge daters across genders and sexualities say they're holding back from having deeper conversations because they don't know how to start.

There's also a "communication gap" between women and men, specifically. Forty-two percent of heterosexual Gen Z women feel like the men they date don't want to have deep conversations on the first few dates, but 65 percent of heterosexual Gen Z men say they do.

Early dating often locks people into invisible scripts — like who is "passive" and who is "active," Hinge's love and connection expert, Moe Ari Brown, said in the report. "Falling into these kinds of roles can quietly sabotage the connection because, while habits create routines, they can also create monotony or imbalance."

Zooming out, 43 percent of Gen Z women in general wait for the other person to initiate deep conversations, partly because they assume men don't want to have them, and 48 percent of Gen Z men hold back from emotional intimacy because they don't want to seem "too much." Other worries are the fear of rejection and being judged.

This also tracks with what Hinge found last year: 95 percent of Gen Z daters worry about rejection, and 56 percent said that worry held them back from pursuing a potential relationship.

Another reason Gen Z is holding back is social media. Half of Gen Z men, 45 percent of Gen Z women, and 39 percent of nonbinary Gen Z daters said that social media has made them more hesitant to be emotionally open, according to the 2025 report.

In a time where nearly every move one makes is posted online (if not every single move), the fear of being cringe is strong. But we have to embrace it to find love. As Hinge's lead relationship scientist, Logan Ury, said in the new report, "authentic connection requires vulnerability and imperfection."

...while also using AI tools to date

Yet, it could be easier than ever to outsource vulnerability with AI, which Gen Z daters are turning to. From flirting to wedding planning, young adults are using AI tools like ChatGPT to shape their relationship experiences.

Of the Gen Z men who turn to AI for dating, over half (58 percent) use it to initiate conversations, and exactly half use it to generate conversation responses. Forty percent of Gen Z women who use AI do so to start chatting, and 57 percent use it for responding to conversations as well.

Meanwhile, only 34 percent of Hinge daters overall are comfortable or neutral about using AI to write messages.

As difficult as it is, you might want to exit out of ChatGPT in order to find your partner in 2026. You're not alone if you're looking for greater emotional intimacy, though: 84 percent of Gen Z Hinge daters want to find new ways to build deeper connections with the people they're dating.