Tinder tests new social features, including prompts and a ‘Share to Matches’ option

Tinder is testing a series of new social features designed to boost conversations between users on its service. One of the new features is a conversational prompt, first teased during parent company Match Group’s recent earnings. The prompt encourages users to respond to questions or finish a sentence in order to better showcase their personality with their answers. The other, a “Share to Matches” option, allows users to post photos, looping videos and other content that can only be seen by their existing matches.

With both new additions, the overall goal is to encourage Tinder users to start messaging with others in the app.

Breaking the ice to chat with an online stranger is often one of the more difficult aspects of online dating. That’s led to many a Tinder user resorting to cheesy one-liners, jokes, or overly risque remarks as an attempt to get a reaction or make light of the awkwardness of being on a dating app to begin with. But now Tinder seems to be borrowing ideas from Match Group’s newest acquisition Hinge, which relies on conversational prompts and captioned photos to get users to show off more of their personality on their profiles.

Meanwhile, Tinder’s new option to upload content that can only be seen by existing matches could be a useful way of nudging shy matches to initiate a conversation for the first time, as well as re-engage matches where the conversation had dropped off.

The features were discovered by app sleuth Jane Manchun Wong and confirmed by Tinder as tests. However, Match Group said earlier this month during earnings that Tinder would soon roll out new social engagement features, including prompts.

A Tinder spokesperson confirmed both features are tests.

“At Tinder, our goal is to make it easier to connect with new people. We’re testing ways to make it easier for members to express themselves and share their personalities, while keeping the experience simple and fun,” they said. “These changes may or may not roll out to everyone over time.”

Because the features are tests, some users may see both, some may see neither, and some may see just one or the other.

They may also not appear exactly as showcased in the above tweets.

For example, below is an image of a conversational prompt being shown to a Tinder U user.

Tinder declined to say where or when the tests were running or when they may roll out more broadly to users. However, the Spring Break prompt offers a good hint in terms of when something like this may become more broadly available to test recipients.

The additions are only two of several tests Tinder will run in the months ahead. The now-massive dating app can afford to be more experimental, having already established itself as a market leader — in 2019, Tinder brought in $1.2 billion in revenue, leading it to be the top-grossing (non-game) app of the year.

Match Group said it has other plans in store for Tinder in the near future, too, including an expansion of in-app storytelling experience “Swipe Night,” filters, new in-app purchase options for power users, and more.