Tinder

Dating app Tinder has confirmed it is developing a new interactive feature called Swipe Party, enabling others to virtually join a user as they sort through profiles.

Swipe Party was discovered by Dutch website GratisDatingTips, who spotted new lines of code added to the app’s latest update. Citing further proof of the new feature, the site also discovered that a developer at Tinder had listed Swipe Party as his main development project, further tipping off news outlets like Tech Crunch to what was underway. Tech Crunch confirmed with Tinder that this feature is in development.

There aren’t many details yet about how Swipe Party will work, but Tech Crunch noted that it does involve a user inviting friends to join and enabling the microphone and video functions on the app. The idea is that multiple users can observe as a user looks at profiles, and advise whether to swipe left or right, making choosing a match a group effort.

Recipient Tinder

The recipient for the 2022 Editor's Top Pick - Innovative award is Tinder. Our second year in the pandemic has made it difficult for dating app development teams to innovative and keep introducing new features. Fortunately for Tinder users with the popularity of the app, it gives them large budgets to keep features coming.

So what new a few of the new innovating features Tinder has released in the past year?

Match Group announced that the company will go carbon neutral by March of 2022 thanks to its purchase of offsets to carbon emissions, leading the way for dating apps to address issues of climate change.

The company announced the move in a press release, noting that it commits to offsetting its carbon footprint going forward, though the offset purchase made lasts only two years. Match Group invested in Hyundai Green Power Corporation, which captures and recycles waste gases to generate electricity through its Steel Waste Energy Cogeneration Project. (The site’s steel mill reuses waste gases and what remains is used by the project’s power plant.)  

When that energy is repurposed, it supplies power to the local grid in Dangjin, South Korea, instead of that grid relying on fossil fuels. This means a reduction of 1.8 million tons of carbon emissions per year, according to Match Group. 

Tinder has debuted a slew of new features, and the latest is Music Mode, which automatically plays a user’s chosen “anthem” in their profiles, putting music preferences front and center to attract potential matches.

According to Tech Crunch, the new feature will play your chosen song in a 30-second loop while people scan your profile. Music Mode integrates with Spotify, so when members link to their Spotify accounts and set their anthems, they will be able to access Music Mode.

The feature will be found via the company’s new Explore section which offers a more interactive dating app experience. This is where users can search people according to interests and strike up conversations immediately, do a round of virtual speed dating or attend a virtual event. Tinder is focusing on this section of the app for younger daters who want a more interesting, immersive experience on dating platforms.

Tinder just debuted a new ad campaign in time for the holidays, one of the busiest times of the year for dating app users. The company hired creative agency Mischief@NoFixedAddress to appeal to young Gen Z daters, its target audience.

According to The Drum, the new ad tagline is “you’re not for everyone,” and highlights in a funny way some unusual passions of singles that not everyone will find endearing. The ad is meant to assure its users that no matter how unique their interests are, there will always be someone who’s into the same things.

The first ad features a woman doing astral projection from her living room floor surrounded by candles who loses her zen focus when a roommate wanders in.

Match Group has agreed to pay $441 million in a settlement with some of Tinder’s former employees, shutting down the lengthy trial before closing arguments, according to Reuters.

The plaintiffs included Tinder co-founder Sean Rad among other former employees, and the trial got heated between Rad and former IAC CEO Barry Dillard. Prior to the trial, emails from former Match Group CEO Gregg Blatt were released to the public, showing that he tried to woo talented people into key roles at the company with a higher stock valuation compared to what he told the Tinder employees who had options to exercise.

According to The Daily Mail, emails revealed that Blatt valued the dating app at nearly $12 billion in 2016, more than a year before Match Group valued Tinder at only $3 billion as Sean Rad and other employees were forced to exit the company. Rad and the other plaintiffs who filed the lawsuit claim Blatt purposefully devalued the stock in their negotiations, citing the emails as evidence.