There are countless apps that promise to find you a dating partner or better still hook you up with the perfect match. The likes eHarmony, Match.com and PlentyofFish are well known dating sites and record millions of visits each month. But Tinder promises to help you find out who likes you nearby and connects you if you’re both interested based on your pictures. Tinder focuses on your looks and connects you with people close by.
According to Tinder co-founder and CEO Sean Rad, as of July 2013, users have rated over seven billion profiles, and the app has served over 100 million matches in all (and was adding 1.5 million matches/day and growing).
First impressions are prime importance on Tinder, users have a single opportunity to make an impression to begin the process of chatting on the app. The design is simple: user profiles display up to five pictures, a first name, age, distance away, mutual friends and mutual interests.
After signing up using your Facebook profile and setting your gender, location and sexual orientation, you swipe through profile pictures, tapping a green heart when you like what you see and pressing a red “x” when you don’t. It’s as simple as that. You can only chat with a users you like after tapping the green heart.
Tinder allows those in search of a date to swipe through Facebook-powered profiles of prospective matches, accepting or rejecting based on visual appeal. Only if two people both “like” each other are they allowed to message, this reduces countless spam messages for potential dates.
How Tinder works
- Tinder shows you someone nearby it thinks you should know, who’s single and about your age.
- You can anonymously like this person or skip to the next suggestion.
- If someone you like happens to like you back, then Tinder makes an introduction & lets you chat within the app.
- Any time a user “likes” a member who has also liked him or her back, the application declares a match and introduces the two in a private chat room where they can warm each other up, exchange info and arrange to meet.
