There'due south enough of contest out there, but Tinder remains the biggest dating app in the world and it doesn't look like information technology'southward going anywhere.

Whether you're a Tinder veteran looking to upgrade their profile, or an app dating newbie trying to effigy out how everything works, this comprehensive guide to all things Tinder is where you need to be.

What is Tinder?

Tinder is an online dating app that matches couples based on their concrete attraction to one another. It alerts you to other Tinder users who fall within a specified age range and gender and are within a certain distance of your location, and information technology lets you know whether you have any common friends.

Yous make up one's mind whether or not you like the look of a person: if you do, swell; if you lot don't, they'll never know. If you're both interested then Tinder's messaging role offers y'all a private chat thread in which to talk and become to know each other better.

It's very much like existence introduced to the hot friend of a friend in a bar, but information technology removes the clumsy, drunken matchmaker and the want-to-curl-up-and-die cringeworthiness from the equation.

How practise I get Tinder?

Tinder is available as a free app for Android or iOS; just download it from the App Store or Google Play.

Previously you would demand a Facebook account to log in, but in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica scandal Tinder added the option to create an account using only a phone number. That volition foreclose you from using some of the app's features though, such as pulling photos directly from Facebook, and showing yous when you accept mutual friends or Likes with another user.

How do I use Tinder?

Tinder is a really simple app to utilize. Only download it, set up an business relationship or log in with your Facebook profile, specify the gender and age range of the people you'd like to meet, and how far you're prepared to travel to encounter them. When Tinder finds people who match those criteria it places cards on your screen that prove a large photo of the person; tap this to see a short clarification they've written forth with more photos.

Below the picture is a heart icon and a cantankerous - tap the eye if yous similar them and the cross if you lot don't - or swipe to the correct if you lot like them, and to the left if you lot don't. If you lot like someone who also likes y'all Tinder will tell yous that a match has been made and opens up a simple messaging function.

You'll also have to fill out your own contour. Tinder pulls some information from your Facebook profile, such every bit your task and education, but you lot tin can choose what to display and write out a short bio of yourself. You as well demand to selection a few photos to include - you lot can pull these either from your phone's image library or your Facebook account.

Tinder will also do its best to help you out thanks to a characteristic called Smart Photos. If you choose to activate it, it will continually assess how favourably people accept responded to each of your profile photos, and automatically club them and so that your near pop photograph appears start - taking out all the guesswork as to which photo you look best in.

You can also link your Tinder to both Instagram and Spotify. The former will evidence your almost recent Instagram photos on your profile while the latter volition let you bear witness off some of your staple songs.

Why aren't I getting any interest on Tinder?

Tinder is a two-mode street - y'all can't just sign up, forget most the app and hope people will come to yous. Because the messaging system is opened upward merely when both parties accept confirmed their involvement, y'all won't know anyone has liked you lot unless y'all likewise like them. So if y'all desire to run across results, open upward the Tinder app and get involved.

Tinder Top Photo

What happens if I like someone and they don't like me?

There's no need to hide your face in shame. The just way someone will know if you've liked them on Tinder is if they similar yous too, then a match is made and the messaging function between the pair of you becomes active. So set your sights equally high equally y'all like - no-one volition call you on it.

Will someone know if I don't like them?

Likewise, Tinder won't tell someone who fancies you that the feeling isn't mutual. That person might somewhen work it out when several weeks have passed and a match hasn't been made, but the chances are they've liked a few people in that fourth dimension and won't be pinning all their hopes on you lot. It's a very gentle manner of letting down those in whom you're not interested without hurting their feelings.

Will I meet a psycho on Tinder?

Only the people yous've liked are allowed to contact you on Tinder, and then at that place'due south no hazard that you'll become a bunch of unsolicited messages; and those users you accept allowed tin be blocked if they get annoying or a bit creepy.

But you practice however need to apply the aforementioned rules on Tinder equally y'all would with whatsoever online dating site: you'll never actually know who you lot're agreeing to meet until you lot practice so.

If you want to know more, check out our guide to Tinder's safety features beneath.

Tinder features

Prompts

I of Tinder's more than recent additions is Prompts. These are quick conversation-starters that can exist added directly onto your contour - much similar many older dating sites and few other dating apps use.

Examples include:

  1. The ane thing I won't take for granted again…
  2. I'm talking to my pet nearly…
  3. Why hasn't someone invented…

You can choice a few prompts to add together to your profile, and write your ain answers to them for matches to contend with yous near in chat. They'll appear mixed in with your photos on your profile, so people volition see your prompts as they swipe through your pics.

To find prompts, tap the profile icon in the top-correct of the app, and so get to 'Add media' and 'Text prompt'. Tinder will also keep adding new prompts over fourth dimension, then check dorsum every now and then for new options.

Videos

For a while Tinder allowed users to upload two-second 'Loops', simply it's now replaced these with the choice to add longer videos to your Tinder profile - up to 15 seconds.

You can add together upwards to nine videos, which sit on your profile within your photos and prompts, and you besides upload them from the 'Add together media' department of your profile settings.

Tinder video in profile

Yous'll get the option to trim and crop your video as you upload it, so don't worry if the video you lot want to use is a piddling likewise long, or if it needs to be cropped to fit a telephone screen well.

Super Likes and Boosts

Since Tinder launched it's added a few new features to requite hopeful singles some more options. First up are 'Super Likes' - you tin Super Like someone by borer the blueish star icon or swiping upward on their profile - unlike a regular endeavor to match, this will immediately transport them a notification that they've been Super Liked and the chance to see your profile.

It's a more upfront way to try and match with someone, merely exist warned that some users tin can see it as slightlylikewise forward. With a free account you can as well only apply one Super Like per mean solar day, so use it wisely.

Tinder Super Like

One of the other more recent features is Boost. This is a paid pick that pushes your profile to the top of the queue of every Tinder user nearby for 30 minutes, making it much more likely y'all'll go matches over the next half hour. A single boost costs £three.89, so they're not inexpensive, just you tin get them at a discount by buying packs of five or 10. You lot can find the Boosts by tapping the purple lightning bolt icon.

Explore

Explore is a newer section of the Tinder app, simply introduced in 2021 - though it includes some slightly older features. You'll notice it to the right of the principal swipe tab on the bottom bar.

The Explore department gives you new means to find matches beyond simply swiping. Information technology includes limited time events similar Vibes and Hot Takes - more on them below - only too means to access more than focussed queues of potential matches.

The first is past interest - y'all'll come across stacks of users based on terms like 'Foodies', 'Thrill Seekers', or 'Early Birds', giving you lot the take a chance to only swipe through users that friction match specific interests or personalities.

Yous'll as well have the option to just swipe through profiles that have gone through photo verification in case you lot're worried virtually getting catfished. You'll still seeall users in your principal feed, but at whatever time can get through exclusively verified users through Explore. If y'all don't see this option, information technology may simply exist considering you aren't verified yet yourself - so go on that.

Some other pick is Music Fashion. Available only to users who've enabled Tinder'southward integration with Spotify, this mode plays people'southward Anthem - the song they've chosen to 'define them' - automatically when yous country on their profile, giving you an immediate sense of your musical compatibility. You lot'll have to have picked your ain Canticle for your contour if you desire to browse others' pages with Music Mode enabled though.

Vibes

Only officially introduced in 2021, Vibes is a lightheaded name for a pretty straightforward features: quizzes. Every now and so users will go a notification that a Vibes effect has started in their expanse, and you'll also run into information technology in the Explore feed. If you have function, yous'll get to respond a serial of personality questions - all with a slightly empty-headed tone - but you lot only get 48 hours to do so.

Tinder Vibes

If you make up one's mind to Vibe, your answers will announced on your profile for the next 72 hours, and they'll also pop up in the chat window when you lot're talking to someone else who took part, giving you a quick 'northward easy conversation starter.

Hot Takes

Hot Takes are pretty similar to Vibes, but there are a few central differences. Available worldwide for English language users, they're available betwixt 6pm and midnight every day, found in Explore.

If you take role, you'll come across a Hot Have prompt pop up. Let your opinion be known, and you'll be thrown into a chat with someone else who answered the same prompt - though they won't have necessarily opted for the same answer.

Tinder Hot Takes

The catch is that chats are timed, so you'll have to act fast to impress your chat partner and figure out if you lot're a match - otherwise they'll be gone forever.

Face to Confront video chat

2020 brought with information technology one major improver to Tinder: video chat. Dubbed Confront to Face, the new option is designed to offer a Covid-rubber way to chat directly to new matches without ever leaving the Tinder app. Plus, it offers a few condom features you won't become if y'all just switch straight to WhatsApp.

First up, like matching,both of y'all accept to hold to enable video chat before it becomes an option. There's a toggle you lot tin hit one time you're comfortable video chatting with a specific match, and they won't know when yous've hit it. Once you lot've both enabled it Face to Confront unlocks. Oh, and you tin also turn this toggle back off whenever you like as well, for those days when you know you don't want to be on camera.

Tinder Face to Face video chat

At the starting time of every call y'all have to agree to specific behaviour guidelines, and at the end of every phone call in that location's the hazard to review it and flag any unwelcome behaviour. The app too requires both of you to enable photographic camera access, so at that place's no fright it'll be one-sided.

To larn more, check out our in-depth tutorial: How to video chat on Tinder

Block your ex

Tinder has also added the option to avoid bad-mannered encounters with your exes (or family unit & friends...) by blocking specific contacts based on their phone number.

To cake someone, simply get to your profile settings within the app and select from your telephone contacts which people yous don't desire to encounter within the app - whether it's exes you don't want to meet once again, or friends & family you'd but be a bit embarrassed to encounter on a dating app.

Any contacts y'all block won't appear as a potential match for yous in the future (or vice versa), so long as they signed up to Tinder using the matching contact info. This will fifty-fifty work if they're not currently Tinder members, but sign up in the future.

Vaccine centre

This one is Uk-only, only there may be like schemes elsewhere in the world. Tinder has temporarily added a 'vaccine centre' to the app to promote vaccination, allow users to show off their vaccine condition, and requite admission to NHS vaccine information and resources.

Tinder vaccine centre

Y'all're able to add an interactive sticker to your profile to prove that you're vaccinated - or will exist soon. If y'all do and so, Tinder will even give yous a gratuitous Super Like.

Tinder Online

Tinder may have been i of the outset dating apps to movement people away from clunky websites, but things have come up full circumvolve equally Tinder itself moves into your browser.

The company launched Tinder Online, a web-based version of the app designed to give people access to Tinder even if they don't ain a smartphone - or just don't happen to have access to one at the moment. Just head to Tinder.com and sign into your account and y'all can use all the normal Tinder features - including Super Likes, Boosts, and Rewind - chat with your matches, and even edit your profile.

Best of all, there's 'piece of work mode' - a push that brings up a semi-convincing faux of a Google Drive document in example your manager picks but the wrong moment to walk past your desk.

Is Tinder Plus worth it?

If you're serious near trying to employ Tinder to make a match, you lot might want to consider investing in Tinder Plus. This is a premium, paid tier, which offers a few advantages in substitution for a monthly fee.

There are a few benefits to Plus: for one, it makes Tinder advertisement-free. Information technology also gives you one gratis Heave per month, and five Super Likes per twenty-four hours, rather than just ane.

Plus-exclusive features include a 'rewind' push button so that y'all tin can re-do your last swipe in instance you accidentally went the wrong fashion, and Tinder Passport, which lets you change your location - this is useful if you're planning a trip and want to friction match with a few people before you arrive.

Arguably the biggest benefit of Tinder Plus is that it lifts the 'correct swipe limit'. Normal users can only swipe right on and then many users per twenty-four hours before they have to await 12 hours - a way of discouraging people from trying to lucifer with every profile they come across. There's no stock-still number of swipes y'all're immune, as it's determined past an algorithm based on your typical behaviour, simply either mode, Tinder Plus users can swipe to their eye's content.

So how much does Tinder Plus cost? Again, there's no piece of cake respond. Pricing is adamant for each user by Tinder'southward algorithm, with prices based in large part on your historic period: the younger you are, the cheaper it costs. It tin reportedly range from equally low as £1.49/$1.49 per month right upwards to £14.99/$14.99 per calendar month - with discounts if yous commit to half-dozen months or a yr in advance.

Is Tinder Aureate worth it?

If Plus isn't enough for you Tinder has a second paid tier chosen Tinder Golden, which offers all of the features of Tinder Plus, and two big additions: Likes You and Top Picks.

Likes You does what it sounds like - it lets you see who'south already swiped correct on you, so you can brand sure to pay special attention to the profiles of people who y'all know like yous earlier you commit to swiping in return. You can run across a full list of every profile that's liked you lot then that you can scan through and swipe either way on them while knowing they're interested in you.

Top Picks is a more than recent Aureate feature, which shows you a daily selection of profiles selected specifically for you lot by the Tinder algorithm. Y'all'll see a few picks each twenty-four hours (but they disappear after 24 hours), with each including a highlight drawn from their profile - things like 'Doctor' or 'Adventurer'. You can also pay extra to access additional Picks each day.

Across those two big features, Gold also offers a few more granular controls to who you see, and who sees you lot. You can use the default algorithm to pick profiles or inquire the app to prioritise accounts who've been active recently. In turn, you can as well restrict your profile so that it doesn't prove your age or distance, and even restrict it so that just people you've already Liked run into your contour in the get-go place.

As for pricing for Gold, expect to pay an extra £three.49/$4.99 per month on top of Tinder Plus, with discounts for longer commitments - and again, variations depending on age.

Is Tinder Platinum worth it?

For the real big spenders, there'southward an fifty-fifty higher tier bachelor: Tinder Platinum.

As you'd wait this includes everything you lot go with Tinder Gold, just also throws in another ii features: Priority Likes and Message Before Friction match.

Priority Likes essentially guarantee that your Like will exist seen earlier non-Platinum subscribers, essentially pushing you to the peak of the stack for any potential matches, meaning your profile is more than probable to be seen.

Message Earlier Lucifer is a bigger change for Tinder, and allows you to adhere a short message - up to 140 characters - to your Super Likes. Not that you tin can still send Super Likes without a bulletin, and that this merely allows you to ship the one message, not bombard someone with chat-up lines before they even Like yous back.

Prophylactic features

In 2020 Tinder added several new safety and security features to the app to help users feel comfortable using the app without risk.

Starting time up, accounts can at present have their photos verified, with a blue tick appearing next to the user's name if they have been. Verification is optional, and sees users asked to recreate a series of poses in new photos to prove who they are, with 'human-assisted AI' and then checking that those photos match the photos on the user's contour.

It won't solve the trouble of users who've changed a bit since their photos, but information technology should help reduce the risk of catfishing on the service.

More advanced ID verification is also rolling out worldwide, following a trial in Nihon. This will involve checking people'southward photos and details against authorities ID, for an extra level of reassurance that they are who they claim to exist.

Tinder says that ID verification volition remain optional for now - acknowledging that for some marginalised communities verification may be a genuine safe risk - except for countries and regions that crave it.

Depending on what country y'all're in - it'due south only in 'select markets' - Tinder has also added a feature that will endeavour to detect offensive messages. If you've received a message flagged by the system, information technology will ask you if the message bothered you, and if so will report the user.

Finally, in the US Tinder has paired with Noonlight to give Tinder users complimentary admission to the security app. You can access Noonlight through the same bill of fare that lets yous attach GIFs or images to letters, but will need to register and connect your accounts. One time you do, it will allow you to record any plans to meet a new partner within Noonlight from Tinder.

If an emergency then comes upwards during the engagement, you open the split up Noonlight app and hold a button to trigger the emergency. The app will enquire for a Pin to delete the alert, and besides try to call and text you, and if at that place's no response and then the app phones emergency services. Users with Noonlight connected also go a Noonlight badge on their profile - hopefully a deterrent for anyone who would be a threat.