Zero Date Hosts Video Speed Dating So You Can Click Before You Meet

The Short Version: We seem to be on the edge of a new era, one in which old-school dating apps are struggling to keep up with the way people date now. Lies, ghosting, and dull conversations are so common that singles have begun hunting for something different. That's where The Zero Date comes in: a 30-minute speed dating app built on video that runs weekly in San Francisco and Los Angeles. Co-Founder Amal Assioua told us how The Zero Date sets out to combine the magic of a meet-cute with the ease of a dating app, all in a single platform.

I've never liked the expression “There are plenty of fish in the sea.” It's meant to cheer you up, but picturing myself wading through a thousand candidates just to land on the person I'd share my life with left me overwhelmed.

Each new person I met demanded an investment of my time, and that was always a gamble (honestly, some of it was time I'd love to have back). Still, I know plenty of people feel the same way.

Before landing a partner, the average American who dates online spends roughly eight months and 11 days of swiping, working past close to 4,000 profiles. Another study shows that nearly 7 out of 10 people who date online find deception common, and they more often feel frustrated (45%) than hopeful (28%).

Forget awkward dinners. Think of The Zero Date as the date that happens before the date.

Plenty of people who just want a real connection have ended up in that spot over and over. That's the very reason The Zero Date got its start. It's an online speed dating app for singles in San Francisco and Los Angeles that happens weekly and puts video first.

If that description felt like a lot, I get it. That's only because nothing like it existed before. Co-Founder Amal Assioua sums up The Zero Date neatly as “speed dating but speedier”. Events kick off each Monday at 7 PM (PST) and give you as many as six quick dates without leaving home.

Finding Chemistry Over a Video Call

“All you need to sacrifice is 30 minutes a week to find love.” So says the Zero Date website, and it's hard to disagree, particularly since forming a first impression takes just seven seconds while the typical dinner date lasts around an hour and a half.

Zero Date wants to make online dating simpler by putting face-to-face conversation ahead of texting, where subtleties like tone, expressions, and cues are almost impossible to read.

Open The Zero Date app at 7 PM every Monday to meet as many as six potential matches.

“Our goal was to condense the online dating experience into what’s most important — the initial few minutes of meeting someone — because that’s when you see if there’s potential,” Amal said. “The more face-to-face meetings you have, the more likely you’re going to meet your person, or at the very least, speed up the process of meeting in person.”

Podcaster and entrepreneur Christina Wallace came up with the term “zero date” after likening online dating to going through resumés: the profiles looked impressive on paper but had no real substance.

Her approach is easy: Ask someone out for one drink that lasts one hour, and answer one question: “Would I like to have dinner with this person?” If you'd like another option besides meeting up in person for a zero date, The Zero Date platform was made for you.

30 Minutes Could Be Enough

There's nothing complicated about The Zero Date. Each week at 7 PM, people in San Francisco and Los Angeles grab their phones, open the app, and start first conversations with people they've never met.

The platform also steers users through lively chats that run five to eight minutes apiece. In the space of an hour, users can meet as many as six people, with brief pauses between chats to rest and get ready for the next one.

When you click with someone during a chat, send them a heart. If the feeling is mutual, The Zero Date swaps your contact details automatically so the two of you can plan a date in person.

As with speed dating in real life, a match happens only when you're both interested.

“There is absolutely no messaging whatsoever, so your only options are face-to-face. You’re thrown into the deep end,” Amal said. “In traditional dating, you often spend weeks exchanging texts, building chemistry, and maintaining a cool facade. But meeting someone randomly at a coffee shop feels less formal and pressured, and I think the same approach applies to dating using Zero Date.”

Curious what real users have to say? Here's a quick look at some of their rave reviews:

• “That was so fun! Quality folks!”
• “This is a great app, much better than online dating because people actually show up and communicate. Loved it!”
• “The Zero Date is an incredibly easy to use, fun, and refreshingly unique platform. I love the concept. I’ve been on 16 dates so far — btw, that’s more than other dating platforms combined because there’s no time wasted messaging, doing the heavy lifting of trying to spark something out of nothing, and ultimately getting ghosted.”
• “Love the concept and the spontaneity — it’s rare nowadays to have these opportunities.”
• “It’s nice to have the ‘machine’ hang up rather than needing to make an excuse to leave. 😂”

In this tech-driven age, it might be time at last to say goodbye to the limits of texting and welcome real, face-to-face connections in their place.

Building Real Connections

Back in 2018, Venngage ran a study to see if texting alone can make people fall in love. Maybe not surprisingly, over half of the people in the study said they preferred meeting face-to-face to texting.

Humans are still social creatures, even the most private introverts among us. Amal recommends embracing that side of yourself rather than giving in to the urge to flee.

There are no strings attached. All you do is show up weekly at the same time.

“One piece of advice I would give is just to embrace the video feature. It all happens so fast that you don’t have time to overthink appearances, which we found puts people at ease,” Amal said. “It allows you to focus on the person, not the profile.” 

Amal told us Zero Date has big plans ahead. For now it's available only in LA and San Francisco, but the team is preparing to launch a lottery system in the coming weeks to measure demand and choose the next city for expansion.

The team is also thinking about more themed events.

The platform has already held successful Valentine's Day and Halloween events, which were especially popular with Gen X, and it now wants to serve what Gen Z and Millennials prefer. Amal pointed out that younger people tend to value meaningful connections more than casual encounters and are open to non-traditional gender preferences.

Not sure which date night suits you? No problem: The Zero Date Quiz asks you a handful of questions and then suggests the best date night among its main and curated events.

If you live in San Francisco or LA, think about joining The Zero Date's next event. It happens each Monday at 7 PM, so just sign up and show up.