“Have to do it before the first date”

A surprising Gen Z dating trend has emerged that older Australians, particularly those already in a relationship, are finding difficult to navigate. While the social media generation is known for loathing phone calls, sending voice notes before a first date is becoming increasingly popular, reveals relationship expert Logan Ury Yahoo Lifestyle.

I’m not going to lie – I’m a millennial and I despise picking up the phone. I never answer unknown numbers, I have a blocked list of callers, and even if it’s someone I know, I hesitate for a split second before pulling myself together and answering the call.

However, I’m the biggest fan of the humble voice memo.

My love story with voice notes began during the COVID lockdown when my best friend lived in Adelaide and I lived in Sydney. For most of our adult lives we maintained a long-distance friendship but rarely spoke on the phone, and somehow the introduction of daily voice notes became a saving grace in dealing with life’s problems from that point on. As someone who spends all day on the computer, I loved being able to fire off a few minutes of my inner monologue during my lunch break without having to type it out. And then I loved listening to my friends’ responses when I was doing everyday administrative things like cleaning my house.

While my love affair with VMs started in lockdown, it’s a habit that I’ve kept and it’s impacted my dating life too.

Surprising dating trend adopted by Generation Z and Millennials

It started with a discussion about dating where I discovered that married people in my life were shocked to find out that people had started exchanging voice notes even before meeting. Additionally, a voice note can now determine whether or not you even want to meet the person in person after a chat.

And it’s just not my life or my circle of friends — even celebrities are on the voice notes bandwagon, as Kristin Cavallari raises the flag for pre-date voice notes in an episode of her podcast Let’s be honest.

“Before a first date, you have to make a voice memo,” the star exclaimed. “Or FaceTime, I’m okay with that too. But I think that’s when you really know.”

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Australian daters are taking advantage of the voice memo trend

Hinge tells Yahoo Lifestyle that their research into Australian dating shows that conversations that included voice notes were 87% more likely to result in a date.

Logan Ury, director of relationship science at Hinge, said that more than two-thirds of Hinge users believe that hearing a person’s voice helps them determine their interest. “Voice notes can give you a deeper sense of a person’s energy, personality and sense of humor,” Logan said Yahoo Lifestyle. “They allow users to find out for themselves early on how the other person makes them feel.”

An expert’s advice on how to woo your dating match with a cheeky voice note

Okay, of course there are dangers associated with voice notes. For example, you don’t want to end up on Hinge Boiz and have your terrible celebrity impression go viral.

Luckily, Logan has a few tips to keep the embarrassment at bay. “Imagine you’re talking to a friend,” she advised. “You’re not applying to be a voice actor. You show us who you are!”

Logan also said that voice notes were a great way to demonstrate his sense of humor and try not to re-record and stay authentic. “Don’t keep re-recording. If you think about it too much, you will sound less and less like yourself and it will feel rehearsed and unnatural.”

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And most importantly: don’t be scary.

“Leave the heavy breathing to your cardio workout,” Logan said.

Voice notes – they really work

In a survey by Yahoo LifestyleWhile the results were mixed in terms of how people feel about VMs, some Voice Notes fans reported to us great success using Voice Notes to connect with people.

“I literally fell in love over voice notes. Now I’m getting married,” one woman told us. “My current boyfriend and I exchanged several voice notes before we met!” said another person. “I think it helped him feel like a real person and not like a mysterious man I was chatting with on an app.”

What are you waiting for? Send this VM. Have no fear.

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