Good news for polyamorous daters: OKCupid will now let you acknowledge your relationship(s) status right on your profile.
Most members of the dating site OKCupid have come across profiles mentioning polyamorous relationships (having more than one sexually or romantically committed partner) or couples seeking an addition to their relationship.
Now, polyamorous members can make their relationships official with the new feature called Couples Linking. It enables partners to list themselves as "in an open relationship," and to link to others' profiles, OKCupid told NTRSCTN in a statement.
Starting Friday, couples looking for a third (or fourth, or fifth) party can let people know what they're looking for. Here's what it looks like when you edit your profile:
This feature comes in response to rising demand from polyamorous users and those open to dating them. In 2008, members started a thread on OKCupid's forum requesting ways for couples to use the site together. Two years later, in 2010, 32 percent of users said they'd date someone in a polyamorous relationship, according to OKCupid. That number climbed to 42 percent in 2015.
Also last year, 27 percent of OKCupid users were willing to consider an open relationship, 24 percent said group sex "seriously interests" them, and 42 percent said they'd date someone in a polyamorous relationship.
In fact, less than half of users in 2015 said they were "committed to total monogamy."
OKCupid added a "relationship type" category to profiles in 2014 so that users could specify to what extent they preferred monogamy or polyamory. Like that addition, Couples Linking reflects that we're no longer assuming everyone is monogamous.
"OkCupid is seeing a demonstrable uptick in the number of people open to polyamorous type relationships," the site told NTRSCTN.
Hopefully, this update will make online dating more inclusive to people in nonconventional relationships.
