Upward Rebuilds Itself Around Marriage Goals for Gen Z Daters

Seventy-two percent of Gen Z respondents in Match Group's 2026 Singles in America study said they want to get married. The company took that number and rebuilt Upward, a dating app it launched in 2020 for Christian singles, around it. The app relaunched last month with a wider pitch: young singles who hold traditional views about family, faith and community, whether or not they lead with those views.

The redesign adds two features. Chivalry Mode prompts men to send the first message, in a format similar to Bumble's earlier approach. Marriage Timeline lets users state when they hope to get married. The app still uses left and right swipes, and users can add a Faith Statement describing their relationship to God. Match Group's 2026 study also found that a quarter of singles aged 18 to 34 describe themselves with a mix of traditional values on family, faith and community.

Lauren DeFord, Match's director of brand marketing, described the change as a "brand shift" that welcomes people "who share those same goals, but may not lead with a faith-first mindset." She said Christian singles remain at the core of Upward's mission. Match Group declined to disclose active user numbers for the app.

The survey behind the redesign covers 5,000 unmarried US singles, which Match Group describes as demographically representative of Census data. Other data points in a different direction. A 2023 Pew Research study found that 23 percent of adults called being married "extremely" or "very important" to a fulfilling life, against 61 percent who said the same about close friendships. The share of high school seniors who expected to marry someday dropped from 80 percent in 1993 to 67 percent in 2023. Daniel Cox, who directs the Survey Center on American Life and wrote Generation Uncoupled, said Match's marriage figure may skew by age, since older generations may have already married or divorced. He also said young women increasingly believe marriage makes them less happy.

An American Institute for Boys and Men survey found 44 percent of Gen Z men had no relationship experience during their teen years, twice the rate of older men. Cox called the trad trend "a reaction to the lack of cultural norms around courtship" and said some daters want a script, though he does not think the trad version is close to ideal for many young people.

Early users have pushed back on the app's direction. Adreanna Pulliam, 25, an opera singer in Bloomington, Indiana, said she encountered "MAGA types of men" and profiles in the "red-pill, trad wife, conservative values" mold. Tauti, a social work student in California, quit within 48 hours and posted on TikTok that Upward "turned me off from Christian dating altogether." Heidi Marais, a teacher and single mom, asked why agnostics can join. Pulliam said the app might work "within communities of Christian private universities" but added that it works only for someone who has "a little bit more of a closed mind." An App Store reviewer called the app "janky as hell." Upward has faced complaints since 2020 about functionality, filtering, user support and automatic bans.

Match Group's marketing for the relaunch centers on the phrase "home of modern courtship." A promotional video showed a man named Zach in a cowboy hat carrying his partner through a meadow under the overlay "chivalrymaxxing." The company calls the campaign's visual theme "Americana" and titles it "Wanted: For Life."