Tinder

Animal rights activists are up and arms over the latest Tinder profile craze – posting selfies with large animals, specifically tigers, in an effort to impress potential dates.

PETA sent a formal request to Tinder asking the company to take a more active approach to condemning these photos and to ban tiger selfies altogether, citing that they are exploitative. Tinder responded in kind by posting a blog on its website, asking users to remove these selfies out of respect for other daters.

PETA noted in its letter that the practice is cruel because the tigers have to be caged, tied down or drugged in order to take the photo. Animals used as so-called “photo props” were typically taken from their mothers as babies and subject to abuse. When they grow older, they become too dangerous to handle and end up being locked in cages.

The dating app that started a cultural revolution, at least as far as online dating goes, is changing its focus from swiping - a fundamental part of its technology. Tinder, which made its reputation as a hot-or-not dating app thanks to its innovative swiping function, is now offering more functionality to profile viewing through tapping.

Instead of just swiping through different user profiles, Tinder is offering a deeper look and more functionality and ease to check out a person’s profile before you say yes or no. This includes toggling between a user’s photos and also between photos and written profiles.

Part of the rollout includes a new visual approach. Each profile photo extends to the edges of the phone, giving users a better, cleaner look at a potential match (as well as an even more visual experience). The look is also similar to other visual apps, like Snapchat.

The guys-posing-with-tigers-on-Tinder trope isn't just a played out profile pic, it's a global phenomenon that’s inspired Tumblr, blogs, think pieces, and a scolding letter from PETA. It may now be coming to an end.

To honor International Tiger Day on July 29, Tinder announced it’s taking a stand against photos taken with tigers and other wild animals.

“While most of us are on Tinder to find a soulmate or a date, appearing on the app isn't fun for everyone,” reads PETA’s original letter. “What might, at first swipe, look like a harmless picture actually means that someone was caged, dominated, and tied down or drugged before their photo was taken and uploaded online. If this happened to one of your users on a Tinder date, you'd block the profile of the person responsible immediately. Unfortunately, this is the reality for tigers, lions, and other big cats who are featured in an alarming number of Tinder profile photos.”

Tinder's New Look

Will dating apps soon be saying sayonara to the swipe? Tinder, the app often credited with popularizing the swipe gesture, has gotten an updated look and new navigation gestures to go with it.

“Over the past few months, we’ve been hard at work refreshing the user experience,” said a company blog post. “Today, we’re excited to start rolling out a more seamless way to navigate Tinder for our users around the world.”

Tinder promises a new user experience that is both smarter and better looking. On the aesthetics front, the app now boasts a cleaner design and photos take up more real estate, extending all the way to the edges of the screen. Tinder calls the makeover “part of an ongoing effort to make our app as fun and attractive as the community it serves.”

Online dating corporation Match Group was reported to have made an offer to purchase dating app Bumble for $450 million this summer, according to a report by website Tech Crunch.

Match Group is the parent company to a number of dating apps, including popular Bumble competitors Match, Plenty of Fish, OkCupid and Tinder. It seems Bumble hasn’t accepted the offer, which is understandable since some analysts value the company at almost a billion dollars.

Bumble has a rocky history with Match Group as well, which could play a part in any decision about an acquisition. Bumble’s founder and CEO Whitney Wolfe sued Tinder and IAC in 2014, (when Match Group was a part of IAC). Wolfe was one of the co-founders of Tinder, and brought a sexual harassment lawsuit against her ex-boyfriend Justin Mateen, who also happened to be one of Tinder’s co-founders and the CMO. Wolfe accused him of sending her “sexist, racist, and otherwise inappropriate comments, emails, and text messages” following their very public breakup. The two parties settled out of court for an undisclosed amount, with neither side admitting any wrongdoing.

A dating app with a hook-up reputation is getting it on IRL, too. In July, the popular dating app hired event organizers to throw parties for its most exclusive members in a rented house in the Hamptons. Unfortunately, partygoers (and Tinder) were soon booted out.

According to an article in Gizmodo, the company threw “a series of parties at telecom mogul Michael Hirtenstein’s oceanfront home...Over the weekends of July 14th and July 21th, cops reportedly visited the property multiple times due to noise complaints from neighbors.”

According to Page Six, attendees were also cited for carrying open containers and illegally parking.