What a wonderful world it would be if dating didn’t start with swiping - a world where we don’t need to read through hundreds of profiles, swipe right, make enough small talk to be asked on a date and then spend days feeling nervous about, what really actually is, a semi-blind date. We dream of spontaneous meet cutes, meeting people in real life and having a story that’s not ‘we met on a dating app.’.So what if dating apps didn’t exist? How would we find love?

The Human Way of Connecting

Without apps, meeting someone would rely on natural, face-to-face encounters—at gyms, coffee shops, or community events. But approaching someone requires courage and confidence and being approached requires kindness, open-mindedness and respect. It’s a more vulnerable and yet more human, experience but would it be a better experience? Would every person that is being approached be kind and respectful? Would every person doing the approaching be charming and respectful even if they were rejected? Is there a safety risk to women of rejecting a man? There’s lots of societal things to think about if we truly went back to this way of connecting.

Dating Apps

Dating apps have fundamentally changed how we meet, offering an endless stream of potential matches with just a swipe. But with convenience comes complexity. Are people always respectful on apps? Unfortunately, no. Is rejection easier online? Perhaps—but it can still sting. This convenience has shifted our perception of relationships. When meeting someone is as easy as a swipe, it often feels less meaningful. Many find themselves in a cycle of swiping "just to see," even after promising dates, fostering a culture of indecision rather than commitment.

a middle ground

The challenge isn’t dating apps themselves but how they’re used. The dating app needs to be reinvented to blend the efficiency of technology with the authenticity of real-life connections to encourage users to meet intentionally and live their best lives, both online and offline. As we reflect on dating without apps, we find ourselves longing for balance: where technology facilitates connection and ideally makes that first moment of interaction a little easier without fully replacing the human element. Is it time for us to rethink how we use these tools?

You can probably guess what’s coming - it’s a nod to piano piano, the app that’s doing just that - taking us back to a slower pace of dating where we invest our time in our lives rather than in a dating app, where we meet each other in person. Want to experience a more intentional way of dating? Join piano piano’s waitlist today and be part of the true dating revolution.

Dating without swiping

by francesca, founder