Unlike Singles Only Social Club, however, My TruBond is also an app (it’s free to sign up). Moss, who previously managed IT systems for various government agencies and private companies, says that the app is primarily designed for people to meet offline. There are no robust texting features, and the dating radius only allows users to search up to 100 miles. Users are required to pass a background check before being verified (submitted profile data is cross-referenced with a national criminal database), and later take a personality assessment test to help determine prospective matches. First dates confirmed through the app, he says, happen over video call.

For years, Big Dating got singles hooked on the booze of convenience culture. Apps were like junk food—fast, easy, but ultimately unhealthy when used for long periods of time, causing problems like depression, anxiety, and body-image issues. The next frontier of dating, it seems, is a return to the old ways of courtship that require a lot more intentionality and investment. “What we are building is an experience—the journey of getting you to a second date,” Moss says.

Talk of app fatigue is trendy but it overlooks the root problem, says Brie Temple, who holds the position of “chief matchmaker” at Tawkify. She believes the real issues around dating run deeper. “We now have a whole generation of eligible singles who have been introduced to romantic partners through a screen. A lot of wasted time, energy, and emotion gets invested into that process—all of that leads to burnout,” she says. “We talk about instant gratification; it’s the age of convenience. But you can’t DoorDash a partner into your life. Through matchmaking we do things like remind people how to flirt and have a connection.”

Tawkify is a veteran player in the evolving matchmaking market. Launched over a decade ago, the company bills itself as an antidote to the chaos of dating apps. It is one of the many platforms that wants to remove some of the risk factors of finding love online through personalized, one-on-one matchmaking. Singles are assigned an expert (human) matchmaker who then does everything on your behalf, from prescreening to date planning.

The service offers two pathways to love. In the first option, prospects sign up for a lifetime membership ($9.99) and their profile is uploaded into the database in hopes that it will eventually get paired with that of another single. In option two, daters select from “client packages”—you pick from three, six, or 12 matches, ranging from $4,900 to $15,000—and are paired with expert matchmakers tasked with all sorts of detective work. They do background checks and compatibility testing.

When I asked Temple how many people were currently taking advantage of the company’s signature services, she declined to comment. “I can’t say, but at any given time we have hundreds of active clients.” Even though Tawkify claims to have the largest private database of singles outside of dating apps, Temple declined to share the extent of that database beyond saying it was “in the seven-figure range.”