Geminis swipe left: How star signs and astrological dating became mainstream

It was 2017 when a new app called Co-Star first appeared on the scene and, intentionally or not, changed the face of modern dating.

Through its stylish and sleek interface, Co-Star offered exciting promise – something sexy, but not necessarily new: it could chart the astrological compatibility of users with their friends, lovers, workmates, or enemies.

Star signs and birth charts are being used to find compatible matches more than ever. Credit: iStock

While people have always looked to the stars for romantic guidance, be it by considering what a glossy magazine has to say about how Librans ought to handle their money or Taureans their stubbornness, this new era of digital astrology proved different again. Suddenly, through the use of Co-Star, we were being offered up a voyeuristic, easy-to-read map of the cosmos in a uniquely modern and digestible way.

It’s in large part thanks to apps like Co-Star and The Pattern that astrology has undergone a seismic cultural and digital rebrand and allowed many of us to begin stargazing our way through life without shame.

In the space of a few years, consulting the stars on a quest for love has moved from the fringes of woo-woo relationship theory to the mainstream. It’s also allowed us to assess our compatibility with others without holding a truly earnest belief in horoscopes or birth charts because these apps have made it so that we can, so easily.

The genius of these apps are is they look and function like any other social media or dating app. They aren’t naff or tacky in the way you might expect astrology-related design to be. Their interfaces aren’t littered with twinkly graphics or pop-up phone numbers of scam artists purporting to be psychics. In those early days, Co-Star succeeded because it was cool, easy-to-use, and personalised, offering its users witty morning memos about how best to manage their day-to-day woes, or permission to take a sickie if the moon insisted it was necessary to do so.

By 2020, Google Trends recorded the search terms “birth chart” and “astrology” were at a five-year-high. This is hardly surprising: in moments of great instability, our emotional anchors become a little less robust, or – dare I say – scientific. In the three years since Co-Star launched, the world faced the #MeToo movement and a global pandemic, both of which shifted the dating experience profoundly for many people, not least when it comes to what they look for in a potential partner.

“I definitely don’t have any signs I don’t date, but I do love to see the moon sign of someone before I really pump the gas romantically,” Adam, a 31-year-old Gemini from Melbourne, says.

Consulting the stars to find a perfect match has become more and more mainstream in recent years.Credit: iStock

Adam is no stranger to birth charts, having been introduced to astrology by his mother as a child. But he has noticed an increase in astrology-related chit-chat among his peers and those he dates over the last few years. “It has definitely popped off! [I’m] seeing people become more aware of specific transits, knowing their big three … also the amount of super specific astrology memes,” he says.

In October 2022, the dating app Hinge also noticed the increased interest and introduced an option to add zodiac signs to dating profiles.

“I loved when I was on dating apps having a squiz at [a potential partners’] star sign. It swayed my decision more than I care to admit,” Em, a 24-year-old Sagittarius from Perth who has only ever seriously dated fellow Sagittarians, says.

Em isn’t alone in being swayed by the stars when it comes to deciding how, and who, to date. Edie, a 32-year-old Capricorn from Brisbane, admits to being wooed by the stars herself.

“I’ve never paid much mind to it, and then I started seeing someone very casually. My best mate got his birthdate, time and place out of him with terrifying efficiency. Of course, I put this into The Pattern, and day after day, I get little notifications that have affirmed how deep our connection was so quickly... Now I occasionally ponder if an astrology app has affirmed the romantic in me and propelled me to consider moving halfway around the world to be with him. It’s simultaneously perturbing and comforting,” Edie says.

Like most of my peers, I enjoy the novelty of participating in astrology. I consider it a vehicle for conversation, a language I’ve learnt how to speak (largely through its modern, online proliferation), and one I engage in regularly – be it through sharing niche astrology memes between friends, or having Co-Star determine if I was ever cosmically aligned with someone I matched with on Tinder a handful of years ago.

But I take pleasure in it with caution. I know that my curiosity about what the stars have to say for themselves might very well be in earnest, but the apps that offer my astrological forecast do not have all the answers I’m pining for, despite promising that they do.

All they have, it seems, is the knowledge that the question exists: the question being, of course, whether a Gemini and a Pisces can ever truly make it work.

Madison Griffiths is a freelance writer based in Melbourne.

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