Tinder Adds New Filter Features

Match Group announced the roll out of new filter features for its star dating app Tinder, following suit with Bumble, who rolled out similar features late last year.

The filter features include both free and paid options, according to Tech Crunch, but Match Group did not disclose many details, other than comparing the features to Tinder U, which filters matches solely to other nearby college students. 

Match Group aims “to make the utility of Tinder better and more efficient,” according to CEO Mandy Ginsberg, who just announced she’ll be leaving the company after fourteen years at the end of February. 

“We’ll be introducing features to give members more control over their experience,” she added. “We believe there’s an opportunity to introduce both free and paid features to enhance the experience.”

The news follows on the heels of a similar rollout from female-friendly dating app Bumble, who offered more ways to filter out matches beyond birthdate and distance. Right now, dating app users can include their general preferences in searches, such as education, religion, and political leanings, but matches aren’t necessarily narrowed to a specific population, (such as college students who use Tinder U).

Tinder will also roll out new “social engagement features” according to Tech Crunch, but the details were limited on this as well, aside from a few screenshots shared by Match Group. In the screenshots, there are text and photo prompts to encourage meaningful conversation, something that interests younger Gen Z daters. The screenshot prompts included phrases like “a life goal of mine is…,” “a social cause I care about is…,” “an overshare…,” “dating me is like…” and “biggest risk I’ve ever taken is…” among others.

Image: TechCrunch

These questions are similar to the formats used by Hinge and OkCupid, also owned by Match Group. In fact, OkCupid just rolled out an international campaign centered around political conversations and other sensitive topics, something that attracts Gen Z daters.

Lastly, Match Group announced the international rollout of its successful original content series Swipe Night following its US debut. The series offered short interactive videos to Tinder users who answered questions in a choose-your-own-adventure format, leading to different story endings. The answers would populate user profile fields, so that matches could see how they responded in certain scenarios – (namely what you would do if you had three hours until the apocalypse). Tinder saw an increase in engagement during its U.S. Swipe Night launch.

Overall, Tinder is looking to provide more pay-as-you-go options for its new features as opposed to a tiered subscription service. Match Group President Shar Dubey told Tech Crunch, “we started experimenting with a couple of pay-for-advantage features, on Tinder particularly. And they’ve done really well and they already contribute north of 25% of our direct revenue.”

Tinder also recently rolled out new safety features, including a panic button to alert security if you feel unsafe on a date.