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The course of true love may run more smoothly in future - mobile phone services have become embroiled in the challenge of modern dating.

On the same day that Britain's biggest dating agency launched a remote-viewing service of potential mates from the comfort of one's own handset, another service promises to do your dirty work and get rid of unwanted admirers.

Technology appears to be taking the place of old-fashioned chemistry and conversation over dinner: loveless singletons can now pick up and let go of potential partners without so much as a heart flutter or an awkward silence.

For today's hi-tech lovers, video clips will take the place of formal introductions enabling the lovelorn to trawl through filmed personal messages from other lonely hearts, all recorded on and downloaded from their mobile telephones. The new service will begin within weeks.

Then, should things go wrong there is no need to agonise over the kindest way to let a lover down gently, because your mobile will deliver a guilt-free message for you, before barring any more calls from the unwanted caller.

Subscribers to Dateline's new mobile-matchmaking service will be subjected to a video interview, during which they will be questioned, apparently by their handset, in order to produce a one-minute film for an online database.

"The system will ask who people are looking for and, most importantly, get people to describe themselves. Subscribers will get examples to get the idea and people can always re-record if they are not happy," says Jim Weir, the managing director of Dateline Any of the other million or so subscribers can then view the clip, in the hope that the extra visual information will lead to a higher hit-rate of successful matches.

Then the other, altogether less romantic, service is at hand to allow either party the chance to bail out if things turn sour.

The package, called Securfone, will mean that you will never have to pick up an unwanted call again.

Depending on who is calling, your mobile can now politely let someone know you are temporarily unavailable, promise to call them back later or tell them you never want to see them again.

Subscribers are given as many temporary phone numbers as they like which are routed through to their handset until they are no longer required.

If the unwanted caller persists, a "greeting only" option can be selected, under which they can no longer leave a message, and are told that the phone number they dialled will be de-activated as soon as they hang up. 

（Agencies)