Tinder reinvents itself for Gen Z

(Photo Illustration by John Phillips/Getty Images)

If you’ve never used dating app Tinder, here’s a new phrase for you: “Swipe Surge.”

This refers to moments when activity on the app is up to 15x higher and “match-making” potential is 250% greater (translation: the odds of getting lucky are high).

To engineer even more of these connections…

… Tinder just announced a suite of new tools

Founded in 2012, Tinder’s interface has remained largely unchanged. Profiles are anchored by photos where users swipe right (to accept) or left (to reject) a potential date.

Per Mashable, 3 updates are coming:

• Videos: Tinder users can upload videos (up to 15 seconds) to their profiles.
• Live social experiences: Tinder will roll out an interactive choose-your-own-adventure game (Hot Takes) and a Q&A game (Vibes) that matches users based on their answers. A similar idea last year — called “Swipe Night” — attracted 20m+ users.
• Explore page: An entirely new part of the app where users can see prospects based on shared interests.

In a completely novel change, people can actually talk before matching.

Wooing Gen Z

Tinder’s emphasis on video and shared digital experiences incorporates the best features of Snap and TikTok, 2 apps very popular with the younger demographic.

In fact, Tinder is contending with a number of new Gen Z-first dating apps, per Wired:

• Snacks, which calls itself “TikTok meets Tinder” (read our Q&A with its CEO here)
• Lolly, where people can “match… while exploring sweet video content”
• Feels, which has an app built around a carousel of short videos
• S’more, which blurs profile photos until people start talking

With so many options and so much — umm — pent-up demand, it seems swipes will be surging everywhere soon.