Launching uwdate
February 1, 2026
Today we're launching uwdate, a dating app for students at the University of Waterloo. uwdate is a platform where Waterloo students match, build meaningful relationships, and support local businesses along the way.
Who we are
We're two students at the University of Waterloo, and we're passionate about doing social good in our community.
We noticed student matching projects like Aphrodite are popular on campus, but fall short of getting students to meet in person, let alone start a conversation. If you look at the most popular college matching initiatives across North America, almost all prioritize scaling across multiple universities. As a result, they lose focus on what makes their local community unique. We're focused on creating something tailored specifically for Waterloo, and that's all we ever intend to do.
It's a bit extreme to claim there's a dating crisis at Waterloo, but it's no secret that the students here are very much career-focused. Dating is often put on the back burner and priority is given to school and future careers. But this doesn't mean that students at Waterloo aren't interested in dating.
Our mission
We want people to meet in-person. We think this is something often overlooked in mainstream dating apps, which focus on endless swiping and online chatting. We believe real connections happen face-to-face, and we want to incentivize that.
How we incentivize in-person dates
uwdate is primarily for students, but local businesses can also market themselves as go-to dating spots on uwdate. Merchants offer exclusive deals on our platform to attract students, which allows you to support local businesses while dating.
At the time of launch, we have partnered with Tsujiri, Ohime Cake and, Bingsu Cafe!
If you're a local business interested in leveraging uwdate, you can self-signup as a merchant. It is completely free to use. You can reach out to us by using the feedback form in the app for help or questions. We're also happy to meet in-person to demo!
Features
- User profiles: You create a profile that reflects who you are, all in natural language. You have complete freedom over what information you want to use for matching.
- Matching: We use a language model to match you based on compatibility, not just similarity. Matching happens biweekly to encourage you to focus on quality over quantity. We aim to match everyone with one to two people per round.
- Reasoning: Once matched, you and your match will be able to see each other's personal profile. This is complemented by detailed reasoning for why you were matched. This helps break the ice and gives you a starting point for conversation.
- Chat: Send messages directly in the app to get to know each other better before meeting in person. You can send meetup invites directly in the chat.
- Exclusive deals: Local businesses partner with uwdate to offer you exclusive deals to meet in-person. You can use the deals even if you're not matched.
Join today
Sign up today using your @uwaterloo.ca email. We can't wait to see the connections that will be made through uwdate!