(Photo Illustration by John Phillips/Getty Images)
If you’ve never used dating app Tinder, here’s a new phrase for you: “Swipe Surge.”
This refers to moments when activity on the app is up to 15x higher and “match-making” potential is 250% greater (translation: the odds of getting lucky are high).
To engineer even more of these connections…
… Tinder just announced a suite of new tools
Founded in 2012, Tinder’s interface has remained largely unchanged. Profiles are anchored by photos where users swipe right (to accept) or left (to reject) a potential date.
Per Mashable, 3 updates are coming:
- Videos: Tinder users can upload videos (up to 15 seconds) to their profiles.
- Live social experiences: Tinder will roll out an interactive choose-your-own-adventure game (Hot Takes) and a Q&A game (Vibes) that matches users based on their answers. A similar idea last year — called “Swipe Night” — attracted 20m+ users.
- Explore page: An entirely new part of the app where users can see prospects based on shared interests.
In a completely novel change, people can actually talk before matching.
Wooing Gen Z
Tinder’s emphasis on video and shared digital experiences incorporates the best features of Snap and TikTok, 2 apps very popular with the younger demographic.
In fact, Tinder is contending with a number of new Gen Z-first dating apps, per Wired:
- Snacks, which calls itself “TikTok meets Tinder” (read our Q&A with its CEO here)
- Lolly, where people can “match… while exploring sweet video content”
- Feels, which has an app built around a carousel of short videos
- S’more, which blurs profile photos until people start talking
With so many options and so much — umm — pent-up demand, it seems swipes will be surging everywhere soon.
