Is Among Us The New Tinder?
Need a date? Forget Tinder. All the cool kids are looking for their new significant others on ... Among Us.
That's according to a new trend popping up on Twitter and TikTok, which shows people are attempting to make love connections in the game by flirting and exchanging personal details during emergency meetings and in-game lobbies. Sometimes it works, as with a TikTok user who tagged her post "lovestory" and "amongus" and said the relationship developed within the game was six months strong. Sometimes it doesn't work, maybe because one of the two people isn't actually interested. Some players have even gotten catfished – guess their dates didn't seem sus? Hey, it's just like online dating anywhere that way!
You might think trying to develop a relationship with another space-suited cartoon character in these short and social game sessions would be hard. But apparently, love finds a way. Screenshots on places like Reddit show that Among Us' short chats are actually enough to ask about those all-important details, such as if someone is single and over the age of consent. "Task dates" involve teaming up with others to spend all your in-game time with them (although this can always result in a double kill by your friendly neighborhood Imposter). And low-key stalking is possible even after death in this game, since your ghost can always tail another ghost until the Imposters win — or the Crewmates complete all their tasks.
Given that, there are some real problems with turning Among Us into a dating service. It becomes a less welcome environment for people just trying to play the game, for one thing. One Twitter post relates that one player kicked everyone else out to be alone with her — and she definitely was not interested. "Stop making Among Us into a dating app," she repeated, in all caps, as one does.
Additionally, Among Us doesn't currently make players have accounts to play, which means there's no way to find out whom you're actually talking to. That makes gameplay truly anonymous for now, opening up the possibility that predators are trying to lure underage players into sharing sensitive information or otherwise putting them at risk. Developer Innersloth says it plans to have accounts up and running by December so that players can report others who are cheating or being toxic. Perhaps this will curb some of the match-seeking tendencies of the many players who have picked up the game recently.
If you're not looking for a date and don't want to deal with lonely hearts on Among Us, you can always go hang out in the also-free-to-play Genshin Impact instead. Oh, wait...