Tinder has been at the forefront of online dating industry growth, making it more accessible to more users than any other online dating platform. So it’s only natural that its accessibility extends to daters in the transgender community.

Transgender online daters don’t have many options when they go online to try and date, because most apps, including Tinder, only allow them to identify as male or female. In the next couple of months, Tinder has said they will be adding more gender identification choices along with more dating preferences.

Tinder is owned by Match Group, but it’s late to the party: other online dating platforms within Match Group, such as OkCupid, have already added more gender preferences to their platforms. In addition to “woman” and “man,” OkCupid’s gender options include “agender, adrogynous, bigender, cis man, cis woman, genderfluid, genderqueer, hijra, intersex, non-binary, other, pangender, transfeminine, transgender, transmasculine, transsexual, trans man, trans woman,” and “two-spirit,” as of November 2014.

Members of the LGBTQ community have pushed for this change in online dating, as they have felt excluded and left out of the conversation as more features are added and improvements made to the online dating experience – except when it comes to their needs and preferences.

Huffington Post Live’s Alex Berg reported deleting her online dating account, writing: “In the grand scheme of problems for LGBTQ people, the options of a dating website might seem like minutia ... [but] that recognition has the power to change the hearts and minds of those who would deny our rights in the physical world.”

It seems Tinder Founder and CEO Sean Rad agrees. “For a long time we haven’t done enough to give [transgender members] a good experience,” he said at the Code Conference in Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif. “It’s harder for them to get what they are looking for. We have to modify our experience to address that.”

Tinder is working on the changes with transgender activist Andrea James and GLAAD, as part of its promise to be more inclusive to its community of daters.

“One challenge we face at Tinder is making sure our tens of millions of users around the world have the same user experience. No matter who you are, no matter what you’re looking for, you should get quality matches through the Tinder experience,” the company said to Fortune Magazine. “There’s an important transgender (and gender nonconforming) community on Tinder who haven’t had that experience … yet.”

Dating apps are no longer the upstarts of the matchmaking world. Like traditional websites before them, they’re now firmly mainstream and wildly popular. Millions of people around the world using dating applications and the number increases daily.

As users increase, so do the number of apps available. From Tinder and Bumble and Hinge, to newcomers like SWEATT and The Grade, dating apps are efficient, fun, easy to use, and often free. To get the most out of the experience, brush up on these expert dating app hacks.

1. Don’t Be A Slacker. Dating apps are the pared-down, lazy alternative to dating sites, right? Oh so wrong. A blank profile says you’re either only looking for a hookup or a scammer in search of their next victim. Your profile doesn’t have to be as detailed as it would be on Match or eHarmony, but you should offer a brief intro to your life, your personality, and what you’re looking for.
2. Swipe Often. Dating apps only work if members use them regularly, so most punish infrequent users by showing them other sporadic users - meaning you’re stuck choosing from a pool of people who are less interested in meeting someone and fewer matches overall. The more you open the app, and the more often you swipe, the better your chances and the higher the quality of your matches.
3. But Do Exercise Restraint. Dating apps penalize both picky swipers and indiscriminate swipers. A user who swipes right on everyone looks like a spambot or scammer, which algorithms are designed to weed out. Don’t say yes to everyone in a desperate attempt to increase your odds of getting a yes back.
4. Use Your Words. Swiping is a perfect way to pass the time on public transportation or in line at your local coffee shop, and no one is immune to the ego boost of receiving a right swipe, but there’s more to the experience than that. Why waste time making tons of matches that go nowhere? Dating app users are notoriously lax when it comes to communicating, so buck the trend by sending a message as soon as a match is made.

And why stop there? If the conversation is going well, take the next step and meet in person. Waiting too long leaves ample opportunity for your date to get bored and move on or - possibly worse - to create an idealized image you can’t live up to when you’re finally face-to-face. For more information, you can view our list of reviewed dating apps.

From June 30th till July 5th eHarmony is having free communication in the United States and Canada. This 6 day event falls on Independence Day (July 4th) and Canada Day (July 1st) and celebrates this holiday long weekend.

eHarmony is accessible via their website and through their dating apps. This dating service is designed for singles looking to find a long-term relationship, a partner for life. A basic membership is free and allows you to take the profile questionnaire (most are multiple choice questions) which takes about 30 minutes to finish. Once complete, eHarmony's matching algorithm with take your answers and match you against other profiles to create your first set of matches.

With eHarmony's free events, you do not need a credit card since no obligation is required. If you are interested in trying out this dating service, you should create a free membership soon so you can take advantage of as much of this 6 day event as you can. Remember eHarmony sends you quality matches everyday using their matching algorithms backed by years of research. You cannot search for members on eHarmony directly, the only profiles you have access too are the 5 or so matches you receive everyday. With the quality of the matches and the ability for everyone to communicate this is more than enough members to interact with. Free communication events at eHarmony do not include skipping the guided communication process, photos, or secure call (a phone feature). For access to these features you will need to purchase an eHarmony subscription

For more about this popular dating website and app please check out our review of eHarmony.

OkCupid has always been bold when it comes to analyzing data in interesting ways and making it easier for people to interact online. They were one of the first online dating sites to offer transgender identity options, and now they are aiming to provide a little more depth to the swiping madness we all crave from our online dating apps.

The company is launching “Quickmatch Flavors,” a cute name for an interesting new feature. While most people swipe quickly (in the span of less than a second), making decisions based on a single profile picture, OkCupid aims to provide users with a little more information so they won’t potentially miss out on someone great. After all, the faster we swipe, the more we miss.

The new feature is designed to counter this photo-based one-dimensionality, allowing users to also see a snapshot of someone's personality, too.

Look at it this way: you could like someone’s profile who looks hot, but maybe you’re a couch potato and she is unreasonably obsessed with the gym. Or maybe you’ve passed on a bookish nerd who’s actually great in bed. The OkCupid team wanted to bring more depth to swiping, so they examined user profiles to come up with different types – or “flavors” – of personalities. 

For a taste of the flavors, OkCupid listed some options they tested on their website, and provided a background of their methodology. Flavors are curated groups of people within Quickmatch that fall into a specific category, like liberals, indie music fans or outdoorsy types. But OkCupid found that the feature wasn’t so fun to use when the categories were so boring and simple. 

So instead, OkCupid (being the irreverent website that it is) has come up with some interesting twists for the categories to make it more fun. For instance, in the first round of flavors they included “tattooed cuddlers” and “mannerly metalheads.” Also for more lifestyle-based choices, “holy rollers” (with a smoking joint icon), “Hipster vegans” (again with an avocado smoking a joint), or even “Best in Show” which I can only assume means dog lovers.

OkCupid measured the results, noting which descriptions its users were most likely to choose. People seemed to respond best to descriptions that were more sexual and playful, so they came up with another round of categories, including “Night Owls,” “Bookworms,” “Thrill Seekers,” “Easy Goers,” “Early Birds,” and “Star Gazers.”

OkCupid said in a statement: "We executed this idea because we wanted to explore how to reinforce what makes people unique. Personality and opinions matter when it comes to connecting with people. If it didn’t, we’d all be plain old vanilla. And Flavors speaks to that.”

For more on this online dating service please read our review of OkCupid.

Despite criticism every time it surfaces, there’s at least one app idea that refuses to die. Stroovy is the latest in a long line of apps for rating and reviewing people - especially your exes. What makes this one different, however, is that it’s limited to people who use dating services.

“Finding the perfect mate can seem impossible,” reads the app’s website. “Stroovy provides serious online daters a community-led platform for peer-to-peer dater review.” The app encourages singles to “authenticate before you date” and “Stroove before you groove” - ostensibly for the purpose of making online dating safer, but it’s hard to believe users won’t be more attracted by the possibility of pettiness and scandal.

The idea is similar to Lulu, an app for women to review men, which stirred up plenty of controversy when it launched. Lulu has since transitioned beyond its original intent and Stroovy vows to be different by accepting reviews from users of all genders. Stroovy also promises to help users:

It can be fun to get together with your single friends and compare your dating experiences. I blog about it, and when I was single, bad dates provided some pretty great ideas for posts!

But after a while, all the awkward and disappointing dates can get you down, especially when you commiserate with friends. In fact, you might be at the point where you don’t want to get together with friends at all, because the date bashing sessions can feel tired or depressing. You might wonder if dating is this way for everyone, or if there are any good men left.

Well, don’t worry – with over 50% of the American population who are single, and many more around the world, you can meet some pretty amazing people. You just have to keep perspective, which can be hard to do if you keep revisiting dating problems with your cynical friends.

There are different ways that your friends can influence your thinking and overall outlook on dating:

They stereotype.

Be careful of anyone using language like “all men are players,” or “nobody is looking for a serious relationship.” These blanket statements aren’t true, and worse, they are influencing how you think about your dates.

What you can do instead:

Approach every new person as a blank slate – assume nothing. Instead of believing your friend’s advice that men on Tinder are only looking for casual sex, take a different attitude. There are plenty of guys out there looking for relationships – you just have to put it out there that you are, too. If you're not finding it on Tinder, try a different app, or take a class, or join a running group. There are so many ways to meet new people - take advantage.

They encourage you to join in the rant.

It might feel good to get those bad dates off your chest, but then what? Usually, you all leave feeling a little more cynical about your dating prospects.

What you can do instead:

Rather than joining in the men-bashing, try thinking of positive things to say about the men in your life who you love, like your brother, cousin, or a good friend. It’s important to remember that dating is a process, and you’re not going to click romantically with everyone. But that doesn’t mean the men you date are bad people – they just aren’t for you.

They get quiet if you have a good date.

Did you have a good date, but nobody wants to hear about it? Or maybe they pick your date apart, looking for what’s wrong. Either way, this is not a good feeling, and can kill that good first date buzz.

What you can do instead:

Try mixing it up with your single friends and invite a friend or two who are in happy relationships. Sometimes it helps to get a little perspective. Dating can be exciting, too when a new relationship is starting to bloom. It's good to remember that it’s okay to be excited and hopeful. Yes, you might get hurt, but you also might find love. The risk you take is always worth it.