The Singapore government built its own dating app and is testing it with public officers

[Skye Jacobs]

Singapore's government is getting into the matchmaking business. GovTech, the agency behind the city-state's digital public services, has launched FirstDate, a pilot dating service for public officers aged 21 to 35, as the country grapples with a record-low birth rate.

The timing is hard to miss. Singapore's resident total fertility rate fell to 0.87 in 2025, down from 0.97 in 2024 and 1.24 in 2015, far below the 2.1 needed to keep a population stable.

The country recorded about 27,500 resident births last year, an 11% drop from 2024 and the lowest figure on record. Officials have warned the citizen population could start shrinking by the early 2040s without new measures.

GovTech hasn't pitched FirstDate as a population policy, though. The agency says the idea came out of its annual hackathon, where a group of officers asked whether more matches actually make dating easier.

The service is built around limiting choice. Users sign in with Singpass, the national digital ID, and answer a questionnaire about their interests, habits, values and preferences. FirstDate then uses the Gale-Shapley algorithm, a well-known method for creating stable pairings, to suggest a single match. Both people have 72 hours to decide whether to connect, and contact details are shared only if both accept. There is no browsable pool of profiles, and a "date quest" feature suggests an activity for a first meeting.

For now, the pilot is open only to unmarried public officers, including widowed and divorced people. Applications close Oct. 5, and participants won't be matched with colleagues from their own agency. GovTech says no decision has been made on expanding it, and it acknowledges that a compatibility score can't predict chemistry.

It isn't the state's first attempt at matchmaking. The Social Development Unit and its successor, the Social Development Network, ran dating programs for years, but Singapore moved away from direct matchmaking as commercial apps took off. FirstDate puts the government back in the game with identity verification, limited data sharing and an algorithm that offers fewer options on purpose.

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The Singapore government built its own dating app and is testing it with public officers

 

[ScottSoapbox]

Heaven forbid you just go up and talk to a girl.

 

[NumberNine]

Considering the government picks the matches, this is like two app updates away from eugenics.

 

[Theinsanegamer]

Heaven forbid you just go up and talk to a girl.

It's not 1950 anymore Grandpa. Many people have made clear the social and legal actions that will be taken if you approach the wrong person at the wrong time are unacceptable, so they're not going to even attempt it.

 

[GeoffreyA]

It's a good attempt. The problem with love today is that the mentality is all wrong. We've become a cynical world, and have made a sham of love—perhaps the hardest skill, as Rilke put it. I may sound clichéd, but a mindset shift towards a bygone era's romance is key: old films, old literature, poetry, Jane Austen, all that stuff, along with a cultivation of the art of love, a skill terribly neglected in the modern world. Do not live together (before marriage). Write letters or e-mails to your beloved; debate, argue, pull their leg without fail. Be Aragorn, and you will find her at some point, perhaps when you least expect it. Women, wait for Mr. Darcy or Jack, and make sure that your calibre is at Elizabeth's level, rather than Sue's.

 

[trieste1s]

Heaven forbid you just go up and talk to a girl.

Heaven forbid you reduce working hours, increase parental leave durations, and allow wages to naturally inflate by not importing economic refugees en masse.

 

[Hexic]

Getting the State involved with matchmaking… where have we seen this absolutely fail before?

Imperial Rome, the Soviet Union, China, and even the Nazis.

But I’m sure it’ll work this time. This time is different.

 

[trparky]

It's not 1950 anymore Grandpa. Many people have made clear the social and legal actions that will be taken if you approach the wrong person at the wrong time are unacceptable, so they're not going to even attempt it.

You got that right.

If you approach a woman and you say something and she finds you attractive, she'll consider it to be flirting. However, if she finds you unattractive, not even God can help you then.

 

[VachSG]

Heaven forbid you just go up and talk to a girl.

You are speaking from a western perspective which means me me me me and me first.