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OkCupid Just Changed the Dating Game in a Major Way

January 13th 2016

If you're looking for love with more than one person, then OkCupid has something just for you. The popular online dating site unveiled a new setting to better accommodate their polyamorous users, TIME reports.

OkCupid love Facebook/OkCupid - facebook.com

"Couples Linking" is a new feature that allows users who identify as “seeing someone,” “married,” or “in an open relationship” to find other people willing to join their relationship and link their profiles, according to CNN. In addition, singles will be able to find non-monogamous couples and connect to their profiles.

The new setting was released Friday but the company offered users a Beta version in December.

Related: Tinder Has Changed Online Dating Forever

The news is greatly welcomed for those in the polyamorous community, as polyamorous people say it can often be challenging to find "like-minded" people on mainstream dating sites.

"It's a very big deal and I'm delighted that OkCupid has gotten this far with it," sex educator and founder of Practical Polyamory Anita Illig Wagner told CNN."I hope other sites take it seriously and we find ourselves welcome in even more major websites."

OKCupid has been trying to accommodate different sexual preferences for a while. Last year the dating site allowed its users to identify as being in an "open relationship" and added "12 sexual orientations and 22 gender options."

Furthermore, 24 percent of OkCupid users are "seriously interested in group sex" and "42 percent would be willing to date someone in an open or polyamorous relationship," according to the Atlantic. Not to mention that the number of people who are wholeheartedly polyamorous committed to monogamy has fallen from 56 percent in 2010, to 44 percent today.

Currently, an estimated 5 percent of Americans are polyamorous.

Related: Here's What Happens When Your Tinder Profile Says You're a Feminist

“It seems that now people are more open to polyamory as a concept,” Jimena Almendares, OkCupid’s chief product officer, told the Atlantic.

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