Profiles

The new features of Tinder Gold!

Tinder introduced swiping to the dating app world and online dating has never been the same. Now, the company is striving to evolve beyond its image as a hookup app and deliver more value to its customers through its premium services and new features.

The latest offering is Tinder Gold – a premium service (as is Tinder Plus) that allows members to see who has swiped right on their profiles in advance. This allows users to eliminate the guesswork involved in whether or not their matches already “liked” them before they make a decision to “like” them back.

According to Tinder, it will also speed up the process of finding a match, because you aren’t waiting around to see if someone you’re interested in swipes right on you, which can be a big time suck in online dating.

Dating apps are all about the swipes. In fact, the process can almost feel game-like, with users swiping left and right as quickly as possible, and it seems there’s an endless supply of potential matches.

So what happens when a new dating app forces you to slow down? It seems counter-intuitive in the current online dating market, but one company wants to try and take it slow.

Appetence is a new app that launched in May for iOS, and focuses on the art of conversation before all information about a match can be revealed.

When you download the app, you are asked a series of questions about preferences relating to music, food, TV, books, movies, and even pets. The app then shows you profiles that are compatible – sort of.

How Match Stories Works

One of the oldest players in the online dating industry is betting on the next big thing since swiping. Match plans to launch a new video feature for its dating app this summer.

Match is still a brand name, and it retains a large database of users (though its demographic skews a little older – the company captures a large portion of daters thirty-five and older, many of them divorced and getting back into dating). But Match is looking to broaden its horizons, and the dating game along with it, by focusing on video for product development, according to a report by Mashable.

The video feature, dubbed Match Stories, varies a bit from the old-school video dating services and other video dating apps that haven’t quite taken off. Instead of stilted introductions from users who aren't used to being in front of a camera, Match Stories allows its customers to be a bit more creative. They can incorporate video and images into a 60-second “story,” and use the voiceover tool to explain to potential dates what they are seeing.

Do you have a “wish list” for a future romantic partner? For instance, do you have a preference for height, career, body type, or whether or not your match is into yoga? Most of us do have a wish list for an ideal partner, but a new study shows that we tend to ditch those lists when we go searching for matches online.

Researchers from the Queensland University of Technology analyzed the dating preferences and contact behavior of more than 41,000 Australians between 18-80 on dating website RSVP. What they found was that despite the fact that most online daters have a clear list of preferences for their ideal partners, they still contacted people who bore no resemblance to these preferences. The study was conducted by behavioural economists Stephen Whyte and Professor Benno Torgler.

How to use BumbleVID

Do you think a few photos provide enough information to determine whether or not someone is a good match? The makers of dating app Bumble think they aren't, and that video can help.

The popular female-centric dating app will soon release BumbleVID, which will allow users to create a video "story" with unlimited 10-second videos, which will each delete after 24 hours. According to Bumble founder Whitney Wolfe, the video feature was inspired by Snapchat.

To make sure the videos are current, Bumble asks users to record their 10-second features within the app, which then posts to their profiles. If someone wants to use a pre-recorded video from their phone or another source, it has to have been recorded within the last 24 hours. These videos will also be marked with a tag saying they weren’t posted “live.” The new BumbleVID feature also lets users send their videos to specific matches.

Tinder sociologist Jessica Carbino

Tinder is making some bold moves lately, with the introduction of Tinder’s Apple TV app and a new profile feature that allows users to choose from over 30 gender identities. While Tinder has a reputation for being a hook-up app, the company is focusing its efforts now on helping users connect and find relationships. Its latest move: hiring an in-house sociologist.

It’s no secret that Tinder has revolutionized the online dating industry in engaging new users who were once weary of online dating. In fact, 70% of online daters only use mobile apps thanks to Tinder’s popularity, quite an increase from just a few years ago when most preferred looking for love from the comfort and privacy of their home computers.

Which is why Tinder wants to remain a trendsetter for the industry. In another bold move, the company recently hired an in-house sociologist to help point users in the right direction for making connections. In recent interviews for Grazia magazine and Fast Company, Tinder sociologist Jessica Carbino shares some tips on what makes a good profile, according to her research.