Tinder has introduced a new matchmaking tool to its online dating armoury, allowing users to suggest potential matches to friends.
Having already disrupted the online dating scene like nothing before, Tinder is looking to expand, adding a matchmaking tool that it says is in sharp demand.
“It was one of the most popular requests from our users,” said Rosette Pambakian, a vice president at Tinder. “So we are testing it.”
Starting over the weekend, Tinder introduced the ability to ‘share’ a profile that you spot, which sends a “temporary link” to a friend.
New Tinder matchmaking tool
Show your friends
This link gives your pal full swipe-friendly functionality for 72 hours (or five clicks). They can swipe the profile and then appear in the shared user’s recommendations “as long as you meet your potential match’s preferences”.
You can opt out of including a share option, although I’m not too sure why someone would do that as it doesn’t hugely impact the ‘share-ee’, by the looks of it.
It’s being tested in various locations around the world, with different appearances depending on the location. Tinder recently announced what professions (of those declared) that users find the most attractive.
According to Tinder’s US data, entrepreneurs of both sexes do well, but pilots (male) and physical therapists (female) top the charts.
Tinder: Behind the scenes
Company CEO Sean Rad recently revealed that users are ranked, behind the scenes, meaning the scroll of people presented to you is not as random as you may have thought.
Rad said that Tinder has implemented an algorithm that means that when a user swipes right or left on a profile, the selection of a profile to appear is assigned to you by an ‘Elo score’.
For those unfamiliar, an Elo score is used in competitive sports, in particular as a method of ranking players based off their results and then using that to judge who they can play against as someone of relatively equal skill.
In the case of Tinder, however, this basically means that the profiles you’re presented with are likely to be in the same ‘league’, as you, as some would say.
Main image via Global Panorama/Flickr
