28 Fascinating Things You Didn’t Know About Tinder

Love it or hate it, Tinder is embedded in today’s culture. It’s a simple enough premise: swipe right for those you like and left for those you don’t, but there’s a whole lot more to Tinder that you probably didn’t know. Below, we outline some of the strange practices and guidelines the app uses to serve up dating matches.

  1. Attractive people are shown first. According to app expert Alex Mark, the first 10-15 profiles you see in any given session are attractive users that haven’t swiped right for you. This way, it looks like there are a ton of hot people using Tinder. The higher quality you think your potential matches are, the more likely you are to choose Tinder over other dating apps. Makes sense if you think about it.
  2. People who’ve already swiped right for you come next. Tinder wants to make matches, so the next users shown are already keen on you. Of course, they also throw in some who haven’t swiped right to keep you guessing. This also stops you from swiping right for people just because you think they liked you. It’s a bit of a guessing game but you are more likely to find matches this way.
  3. Every user has an internal attractiveness score. Of all the things you didn’t know about Tinder, this is one of the craziest. So how does Tinder determine who gets shown in these first “more desirable” profiles? The founders developed what they call the Elo score. The algorithm is based on many factors, including how many people swipe right for you and how many people you swipe right on. However, they’re not willing to reveal all the components of the Elo score. After all, it took them two months to create.
  4. Tinder rewards its more active users. Users who are frequently active are shown more often. This just makes sense since they don’t want users to be matching with people who won’t log in again for ages. In addition, the level of activity includes actually engaging in conversations rather than just swiping. You don’t want to swipe right on someone who hasn’t logged in for two years, after all.
  5. It also rewards moderately selective users. Someone who swipes right on everyone is viewed as a bot or just someone really unselective and thus undesirable. However, someone who’s too selective won’t contribute to the matches that Tinder is trying to create. It’s ideal to be in between these two extremes.
  6. Even your interactions with other people are monitored. While we don’t know to what extent (and hope the content is somewhat private), the length and frequency of messages are used in optimizing your experience. More in-depth conversations reflect well on your attractiveness score as well as how active of a user you are.
  7. There are a lot of cheaters on there. As of 2023, nearly two-thirds of users are already in relationships. While Tinder came back with statements questioning its methods, GlobalWebIndex stands behind its research. I mean, haven’t we all seen a few guys on there that we knew were in relationships? A whopping 30% of users are said to be married while 12% are in a relationship. A further 3% are divorced.
  8. If you’re new to a location, your profile gets pushed to the front. It’s unfortunate for those of us who constantly have to filter through tourists looking to hook up. But it explains why you get so many good-looking matches when you first move to a new city.
  9. There’s more to Tinder’s direct approach than superficiality. Unlike traditional dating sites, Tinder lets you bypass the whole question section and asks as little of you as possible. According to founder Sean Rad, their research has found that these questions can be alienating and intrusive—a huge turn-off to potential members.
  10. Tinder starts to pick up on your personal preferences. Rad also says that their algorithms recognize patterns of characteristics in the people you swipe right for and converse with. These include proximity, friends in common, age, interests, and education level.
  11. Tinder’s data on users is often used for scientific research. In one case, it was even used to help develop computers’ capacity to recognize the gender of different faces. However, this is obviously controversial in terms of user privacy.
  12. Speaking of which, we may be disclosing way too much info. All of our data is stored on Tinder indefinitely. This guy was able to request his and ended up with 800 pages! According to research, we’re more likely to give private information away on apps like Tinder than we would be in real life. In addition, they have all of the data they collect when studying your behavior on the app, so be careful because we all know hacks happen.
  13. There’s a reason you don’t come across celebrity profiles very often. It’s not like you didn’t already know that you’re unlikely to come across Jason Momoa on Tinder, right? While several celebrities, including Hilary Duff, have come out saying that they use Tinder, there’s actually a secret section of the app called Tinder Select. This service is invitation-only and is generally reserved for celebrities and the top 1% on Tinder.
  14. Ever wondered about Tinder Plus or Tinder Gold? An impressive 51% of people who pay for dating apps do so on Tinder, which is pretty impressive. As of 2023, the app has 75 million users, more than six million of whom actually pay for either Tinder Plus or Tinder Gold. These versions of the app allow you to backtrack and give you more swipes per day so you’re not missing out. Whether or not this is worth it for you depends on how much of a hurry you’re in to potentially find love.

More interesting things you didn’t know about Tinder

  1. There’s a science to getting more matches. Tinder has an in-house sociologist and she shares exactly how to become a more appealing user. Dr. Jess Carbino states that people facing the camera are 20% more likely to get right swipes and smiling increases your chances by 14%.
  2. Only 50% of Tinder matches meet up in person. Not all matches decide to take their connection offline and into the real world. Of all the things you didn’t know about Tinder, this may be one of the easiest to believe. Plenty of people use dating apps casually but lose interest or chicken out before actually meeting up in person.
  3. There are way more men on Tinder than women. According to statistics published by Statista in 2019, you’re way more likely to run into guys on Tinder than you are women. The data shows that 78.1% of users are men while only 21.9% are women. That’s nuts!
  4. You can use Tinder in 190 different countries. The app is also offered in more than 40 languages as of 2020, meaning no matter where you are in the world, you can always use the app to find someone in your area to hook up with — I mean date!
  5. Since it launched in 2012, Tinder has made more than 60 billion matches. That goes to show just how many people have used the app to try and find love. I wonder how many of them has turned into an actual relationship?
  6. A good portion of Tinder users are well-educated. According to a study published by Morning Consult in 2020, 15% of Tinder users have a postgraduate degree and 16% have at least a bachelor’s degree. That’s a total of 31% who’ve pursued higher education, which is pretty impressive.
  7. Tinder users spend roughly 90 minutes a day on the app. Buildonfire.com revealed that Tinder users tend to log onto the app an average of 11 times a day, with men spending 7.2 minutes each time and women spending 8.5 minutes each time. That’s a whole lot of time out of your day!
  8. Tinder allows users to choose from nine different sexualities. Not only that, but users can choose multiple sexual identities. For instance, you can list yourself as someone who’s non-binary or trans who identifies as bisexual and wants to see people of all sexualities and genders. Elie Seidman, the CEO of Tinder, said of the feature: “We want all of our users to feel empowered expressing who they are while connecting with new people — and we’re always working to make that easier for our users on Tinder. Dating apps are invaluable platforms for connecting the LGBTQ+ community, and we’re beyond proud to continue our efforts, in partnership with GLAAD, to improve the community’s experience on Tinder.”
  9. Tinder users are all over the political spectrum. Based on a poll of its users, 16% identified themselves as Liberals while 13% described themselves as Conservatives. In addition, 7% identified as Moderates.
  10. There’s a bit of a generational gap. More than 50% of Tinder users around the world are Gen Zers, showing just how popular online dating is among the younger generation. Millennials are also on Tinder, of course, just in smaller numbers. It seems the dating game really does belong to the youth!
  11. Men are way less choosy. A report in the New York Times revealed that men on Tinder swipe right 46% of the time while women only swipe right 14% of the time. No wonder women tend to get more matches and even dates out of the app.
  12. Not many people on Tinder legitimately want relationships. At least according to LendEDU‘s 2017 study. Participants were asked why they use Tinder, and only 4.16% said it was to find a relationship. A much larger percentage had other motivations, with 22.22% saying they’re “looking for a hookup” and 44.44% admitting that they use it for “confidence-boosting procrastination.” The final 29.16% said that they use Tinder for “other reasons.”
  13. Pre-dates are a thing now. Instead of simply matching with someone and just making plans to go on a date, it seems that Covid has changed things for everyone. Ypulse reports that 20% of daters now have a virtual pre-date with someone before getting together in person. This is a great way of screening a match before having to actually leave the house to meet someone who might be a total dud.
  14. Tinder is largely for straight people. While Tinder is very inclusive and welcomes people of all gender identities and sexualities, only 12% of men and 0.01% of women on the app identify as homosexual or bisexual, according to a study made by Queen Mary/Sapienza/Royal Ottawa Health Care. It seems that most LGBTQI+ people use specific apps for their community.
Danielle is a world-traveler based in San Diego, California. She loves hiking, yoga, classic movies, and sharing her adventures on her blog shepowersthrough.com
close-link
close-link