Tinder Rolling Out New Video Features 

Tinder is rolling out a number of new features, including the ability to add video to profiles and a new virtual speed dating feature for users called Hot Takes.

Previously Tinder only allowed users to post a limited number of photos to their profiles, but now they are allowing members to swap these photos for video content instead, according to a report by CNBC. The aim is to help members get a better idea of someone’s personality before swiping right.

In addition, the dating company will be adding a new feature called “Hot Takes,” which lets users chat with someone briefly before they actually match, in a kind of speed dating experience with video. This mode occurs nightly from 6pm to midnight in your time zone, according to The Verge. Daters will be given questions to answer like “Which of these is the most pretentious?” along with some choices. Members can chat until there’s no response for 30 seconds, in which case the chat disappears. Participants will be able to match with each other from this feature, too.

How to use Hot Takes on Tinder

Image: Tinder

How to add Videos to your Tinder Profile

Image: Tinder

Tinder will also add categories to the Explore section to the app, where users can search for people based on shared “passions” and from tags they put in their profiles, according to The Verge. 

How to use the new Explore section on Tinder

Image: Tinder

Tinder executives noted that online dating has changed significantly as a result of Covid, and that users are looking for more connection online before meeting in person. Specifically, video has become an incredibly useful tool for many daters. 

“It’s a little bit less of a transactional environment now, where people want to get to know people better virtually before they agree to meet off online,” Tinder CEO Jim Lanzone told CNBC. “That really sets up a situation where Tinder is this iconic brand, but could really become more of a platform and provide experiences and all kinds of other ways for people get to know each other.”

There’s also a generational shift in online dating, with Gen Z users gravitating to dating apps for the first time to meet people. However, many daters log off the dating apps to interact with their matches over social media like TikTok and Instagram, so in response, Tinder is adding more social-like features to make sure to keep users engaging on its platform.

This also ties to Match Group’s recent acquisition of South Korean social discovery platform Hyperconnect, and its move to test new livestream features on some of its apps like Plenty of Fish. Tinder aims to direct its technology towards online connection in general, not just for dating, to better serve a growing user base.

Tinder now has created more than 65 billion matches worldwide and has been downloaded over 450 million times. For more on this dating app, you can read our Tinder review.