30 December,2025 03:22 PM IST | Mumbai | mid-day online correspondent
Image for representational purpose only. Photo Courtesy: File pic
As 2025 comes to a close, daters across India are busy reviewing their love lives.
Indian dating app, QuackQuack, reports seeing noticeable shifts in user behavior as they re-evaluate their choices, dissect old conversations, and slightly panic about walking into another new year without a plus one. The app shares that this sudden romance audit is reshaping the way people match, chat, and commit.
The year-end survey was conducted among 9746 users from Tier 1, 2, and 3 Indian cities, among active dating app users between the ages of 22 and 35.
The app's founder and CEO, Ravi Mittal, commented, "This December, dating is suddenly far less casual and far more reflective; we see this swift shift every year. The new year approaching sparks some sense of urgency, but we are glad to see that young daters are still making intentional choices. Moreover, we are noticing that people don't want more matches; they want the right one. Users are reflecting on their own dating patterns, questioning their past choices, and surely raising their own standards."
Resolutionary dating
Not just gym memberships, dating resolutions also skyrocket as the new year rolls in. Almost 44 per cent of daters between 22 and 28 admitted to rethinking the dating choices they made in the past, and three in five daters say they no longer want to settle for less. The trend has led to a resolutionary dating style, where users are focusing on more conscious matches. They have stopped entertaining low-effort connections and started reflecting on their true desires in a relationship, instead of blindly following what looks good on paper. "Consistency", "worth my effort", "emotionally available" are some of the phrases gaining popularity in user bios as daters welcome 2026.
Chat autopsy
Year-end brings with it some overthinking along with reflection and introspection. 3 in 5 daters from Tier 1 and 2 cities disclosed revisiting old chats to see where things went wrong or pinpoint the flaw in them for better conversational skills on their next try. This trend is more commonly seen among daters who experienced sudden ghosting, almost-relationships, and unintentional situationships. Advait (26) from Pune, said, "I went back to all the chats with matches that didn't work out, and dissected every haha, and every dry reply. It helped me recognise certain things about myself, and in some cases, I realised that the match was not compatible to begin with; I was just desperate to make it work."
The plus one panic
The end of the year doubles up as the busiest wedding season, creating a slight panic among the singles who are bound to hear the almost ominous, "You are next." 27 per cent of women and 31 per cent of men above 26 shared feeling increased dating anxiety during this period; some confessed to going back to old matches only to understand that they didn't work out for a reason. The report said 18 per cent of daters disclosed fast-tracking some conversations to make one match land, but the rush has never ended well for most of them. However, 2 in 5 matches above 30 claimed that the panic is not always a bad thing; some explained that it has made them bolder in terms of approaching matches and even being more honest about their expectations with quicker disclosure of non-negotiables. Panic has also led to some form of clarity for many daters.
