Dating Apps In Australia and New Zealand are Adding Vaccination Badges

Popular dating apps like Tinder and Bumble that operate in Australia and New Zealand are starting to add vaccination badges as a new profile feature to entice people to match and date. Bumble is rolling its badge out at the end of July, while Tinder is still a few weeks away.

The apps have already rolled out this popular feature in the U.S. and U.K., and now that Australians and New Zealanders are signing up to receive a vaccine, they will be expanding the feature to offer it in these countries, too. 

According to The Guardian, only 11 percent of Australians are fully vaccinated, which might make it more difficult for dating apps to offer as an incentive to match, at least for now. The Astro-Zeneca vaccine is available to eligible adults in the countries, but many are opting to wait for Pfizer, which remains in limited supply. But Australia and New Zealand are ahead of the game - many countries are still waiting for any vaccine dosages to become available for their populations.

Australian dating app RSVP is waiting to offer the badge to its users, since a majority of Australians and New Zealanders to date haven’t had access to the vaccine until recently. CEO Dave Heysen told The Guardian: “So we don’t really want to discriminate when people don’t actually have access [to the vaccine] at this stage. We’ve thought about adding it in at some stage; we just want to make sure everyone’s on a level playing ground first.”

Neither Tinder nor Bumble is offering to verify the vaccination status of users if they post that they are vaccinated – both companies are relying on the honor system. Some users have concerns about this, since many unvaccinated people are mingling without masks and causing new surges of Covid cases, especially in the U.S.

Still, users have been happy to advertise that they’ve been vaccinated, as it has definitely gained them more matches. And governments are paying attention. In the U.S. and U.K., the administrations are partnering with dating app companies to provide incentives and encourage young people in particular to get vaccinated – including offering paid features like Super Likes for free as well as profile “boosts” to increase visibility on the apps.

Some experts have noted that including a vaccine badge in your profile not only increases matches, it also sends a signal about your values. These badges provide insight into how daters think and feel about contributing to society, and that is good information for a dating profile.