Breeze is introducing a sign language match option front and center in its algorithm, not on your profile as merely an indicator. For a dating app that centers on what you can give the least f**ks about (the number of friends on your Facebook), Breeze could have been much, much worse—the difference between an uncomfortable encounter and a seamless connection is who finds out where you stand in relation to these categories.
A Welcome Move Toward Accessible Online Dating
The ruling fulfills a need persistently expressed for many years. The World Federation of the Deaf says there are more than 70 million deaf people worldwide who speak in excess of 300 different sign languages. In the U.S., approximately 15 percent of adults report some trouble hearing, according to the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders. But most mainstream dating platforms also assume users will chat via text or voice, which presents a barrier for deaf people before they’ve even made it to a first date.
Breeze’s model heightens the stakes. After a match, the app sets up a date, instead of having to spend hours chatting in-app. That design has helped the company facilitate more than 400,000 dates in the United States and Europe since it began in 2020, according to internal figures. But it also adds pressure on the matching logic to make sure people have a way of talking if they plan to meet. Incorporating sign languages into the ranking system is one such direct response.
How the Feature Works in Practice on Breeze
People can add a sign language, or multiple sign languages, when first prompted to do so during onboarding and again in the Date Preferences section. Those choices are among the first seen at the top of a profile, so expectations are established before logistics are planned. Behind the scenes, Breeze says matches with overlapping languages are prioritized so that two people who both speak American Sign Language (ASL) or British Sign Language (BSL), for example, are more likely to see each other.
That subtle ranking tweak matters. In most of these apps, language is cosmetic—helpful for self-description but not taken into account when deciding who surfaces in your feed. Breeze, by incorporating it into the matching engine, is treating sign language fluency as more of a core compatibility signal than cool bonus points (akin to having amazing taste in music).
Marco van der Woude, head of business development at the company, looks at the change as an extension of Breeze’s no-chat ethos: if the product is built to promote real-life chemistry between its users, then it has to get communication needs right from the start. Designing for a theoretical average, he added, fails to acknowledge that the abilities and tastes of people are diverse.
Context From Accessibility Experts and Advocates
For years, accessibility advocates say inclusion works best when it’s baked into a product from the get-go, not tacked on after the fact. The World Wide Web Consortium’s Web Accessibility Initiative terms this “accessibility by design,” something that is becoming enshrined in policy as well, from the Americans with Disabilities Act to the European Accessibility Act. For consumer tech, that often means ditching features that increase cognitive load, providing multiple methods of communication, and making it possible to read key preferences by machine.
The Technology Access Program of Gallaudet University has shown how it reduces friction and builds trust to know early about people’s preferred method of communication (be it through signing, lip-reading, or captioning). Applied to dating, that means surfacing language compatibility ahead of deciding on a time and place, versus after.
What It Means for the Dating App Market Today
Most dating sites and apps allow you to list a spoken language, and some, like Muzmatch, even provide space for other community characteristics, such as accessibility badges or country-of-origin classifications, but most don’t elevate sign languages to the level of an actual matching criterion. It’s not just a symbolic chasm. Recommendation systems optimize for what they are told to value, and if sign languages aren’t included in a decision-making hierarchy, users who rely on them can get shrugged off—even when there might be a locally compatible match.
Breeze’s action might nudge competitors to reconsider their own matching signals. Beyond the example of sign languages, the same pattern might extend to other communication contexts such as captioning preferences on video dates or use of sign language interpreter applications. We’ve long been explaining that captioning and interpreter-friendly environments are necessary when it comes to equal access, including with respect to dating apps.
The Bottom Line on Breeze’s Sign Language Matching
By including sign language overlap in its algorithm and broadcasting those preferences up front, Breeze is confronting a real-life barrier that often goes ignored by dating tech. It’s a focused revision, but one that matches the mechanics of a product to actual needs in communicating—and it raises the bar for what effective matching should look like throughout this industry.
