Tinder

Tinder has noticed a popular trend emerging in the past week – users from around the world are changing their location to match with athletes staying in Olympic Village.

Tinder’s popular Passport feature was made available to all users at no cost for limited times during pandemic lockdowns, and many members took advantage. Passport allows users to switch locations to match with anyone in the world, regardless of where they currently live. And recently, Tinder users began changing their location to match with athletes participating in the Olympics.

There’s no current tally of the number of Tinder users setting their romantic sights on 2021 Olympic athletes, but referencing 2018 numbers, Tinder confirmed to Newsweek that there was an increase of 1,850 percent of users accessing Passport to match with athletes in the Olympic Village. 

Dating app Tinder has partnered with VisitHealth to offer free mental health services to its users in India.

Through July, all existing and new Tinder members in India will have free access to emotional wellness content through the dating app, such as guided meditations and fitness videos among other health initiatives, according to The Times of India.

In addition, every Tinder member will have access to two free sessions with a licensed therapist across all major Indian languages. Participating members can also have access to continued support at discounted rates after those first two sessions.

The pandemic has been difficult mentally and emotionally for people around the world, and young people looking for connection have been especially vulnerable. More than half of India’s Tinder members are 18 to 25-year-olds, and as The Times of India points out, they have become more open in sharing their lives with others over the app in order to feel more connected - including who they are, how they look, and how they feel. Since the start of the pandemic, Tinder noted that mentions of the word “anxious” grew by 20 percent, and the word “normalize” was used 11 times more frequently in bios from March 2020 until now.

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.

Image: okcupid

Dating apps OkCupid and Tinder are reaching out to users in India to encourage them to get vaccinated, including offering in-app educational guides and access to an all-new vaccine center.

Tinder users in India will now be able to add their vaccination status to their profiles, as well as being able to encourage others to get vaccinated, according to a report from Indian Express. The stickers range from declaring your own status as “Vaccinated” to “Vaxing soon” to encouraging others to get vaccinated with “Immunity Together” and “Vaccines Save Lives.”

OkCupid is offering similar badges for those who want to declare their vaccination status. The company expects displaying these badges will increase match rates 35 percent, an extra incentive for its users to get vaccinated. The companies have already rolled out vaccination badges in the U.S. and the U.K.

Tinder is rolling out a new feature to allow users to block people in their lives from appearing on their match list – whether it’s an ex, a family member, or a work colleague you don’t want mixing with your dating life.

According to Tech Crunch, the new feature allows users to upload their phone contacts and select which people from their list they don’t want to see on the app. The company says it won’t store the user’s contacts, only the ones they have chosen to block. It should be noted that blocked contacts won’t be notified that they’ve been blocked, so the feature is also intended to be discreet.

People will be allowed to unblock or disconnect their contacts list at any time, according to The Verge.

Hinge Vaccine Badge

Image: Hinge

Dating apps are offering vaccine stickers for user profiles in the U.K., so potential matches can know vaccination status right away before swiping right.

Tinder is offering an array of stickers, including “Vaccinated” and “Vaxing soon,” according to a report from BBC News. Tinder, Match, Hinge, Bumble, Badoo, Plenty of Fish, OurTime and Muzmatch will all be offering badge options for users to add to their profiles, in partnership with a vaccine push by the U.K. government.

The vaccination badge trend began for U.S. dating app users, thanks to a government initiative to get as many people vaccinated as possible. The Biden administration pursued a partnership with dating apps, hoping they would be a good way to reach out to younger people and give them an incentive to get the vaccine – i.e., they can brag that they did and potentially attract more matches.