Tinder is bringing the “Blind Date” concept back with a new in-app feature launching today. Only, in this case, Tinder didn’t put two members on a face-to-face blind date — it introduced them to each other through a social chat feature, allowing them to interact and chat before viewing each other’s profiles.
The feature is designed to encourage people to gauge their first impressions of each other based on personalities and conversations rather than photos.
Tinder parent company Match Group previewed its plans for new features in last week’s earnings report, noting that Tinder’s “Explore” section is still relatively new, helping dating app makers try new things in the app experience and thus continue to attract its users.
The Explore section, which first launched last September, is now home to Tinder’s various interactive features, including its “Swipe Night” video series and a way to discover matches by interest or enter a quick chat before a match. The latter, dubbed “Fast Chat” by Tinder, also powers the “Blind Date” feature.
To use the “Blind Date” feature, members first answer some ice-breaking questions and then get matched with others based on commonalities. They’ll then enter a timed chat experience where they don’t know any details about the person they’re messaging other than their answers to multiple-choice questions.
These would be lightweight and sometimes silly questions like “a shirt can be worn ___ times without washing” or “I’ll put ketchup in ____”. When the timer runs out, both members can view each other’s profiles, then match up if they want and keep getting to know each other.
Tinder said the new experience better reflects the dating culture of Gen Z users, who value authenticity. In tests, Blind Date proved to be quite successful, the company said — people using the feature matched 40 percent more than those using another quick chat feature, whose profile was visible. That prompted Tinder to roll out the option more broadly.
Of course, it’s a bit ironic that a top dating app like Tinder has launched a way to connect with users without photos being the most important focus. Tinder and other modern dating apps have been accused by critics of turning dating into a superficial environment where people make decisions based on the attractiveness of someone’s pictures in less than a second.
This has sparked the emergence of a whole new subgroup of dating apps that market themselves as “anti-superficial” and more authentic. In these apps, photos are hidden, or members are connected through things like voice chat to connect people first by personality rather than appearance. This group includes startups like S’More, SwoonMe, Jigsaw and others.
Instead of building a whole new app for this type of experience, Tinder believes the concept of “blind date” could just be an option within its own app.
“It’s really special to have a conversation introduce a person’s personality without being prejudiced like a photo,” said Kyle Miller, VP of Product Innovation at Tinder, when announcing the Quick Chat: Blind Date feature.
It added: “The new ‘blind date’ experience brings a surprisingly fun, banter-based way of interacting and building connections that’s completely new to Tinder.”
Blind Date is rolling out to Tinder users in all English-speaking markets today in Discover. It will be rolled out globally in the coming weeks.