Tinder Saw 3 Billion Swipes in One Day as Social Distancing Increases

As a growing number of people began social distancing, they are turning to dating apps for connection – and specifically, logging on to Tinder.

Tinder reported that it received over 3 billion swipes in one day – Sunday March 28th – the highest number ever recorded in the app’s eight-year history.

The company also noted in a press release that daily conversations have increased about 20% across the globe, and the average length of conversations is 25% longer. In the US, conversations have been up an average of 19% and the average length of a conversation is 8% longer.

Tinder also said that since its Passport feature was made free to all users, it’s seen a surge of activity. Over the last week of March, use of the Passport feature grew 15 percent in Brazil, 19% in Germany, 20% in France and 25% in India. 

Tinder appears to be the dating app of choice to turn to as the COVID-19 virus continues to spread and people are forced to stay in their homes. This is especially true among younger users, from Gen Z to Millennials, who are looking to virtually connect with new people as they isolate at home.

Another global trend is that people are increasingly turning to video chat apps such as Facetime, Zoom, Facebook Messenger and HouseParty. 

Badoo launched its video dating feature back in 2018. Its sister app Bumble, through parent company Magic Lab, also launched its first live video feature last year. They seem poised to take off as the pandemic continues to spread and people isolate for longer periods of time. Bumble’s decision to include the video feature was seen as a risk at the time, since video chat wasn’t something many people were interested in on a dating app – rather, they would have preferred to meet in person. Now, virtual dating has become the only option. Bumble reported a 21% increase in people using its video chat feature since the outbreak.

Tinder doesn’t have in-app video chat capability but perhaps this is something they are fast-tracking. Its parent company Match Group recently partnered with The Meet Group and launched a new livestream service on Plenty of Fish. It would be good timing if they extended the feature across all of their apps, but so far, this hasn’t happened. 

Considering the amount of people logging in and messaging over the last few weeks, it might put Tinder at a disadvantage to not be able to offer video chats, and instead losing them as they migrate to Facetime and other apps. But as of yet, daters aren’t necessarily looking to dating apps that have this feature.