Tinder's Desktop App Encourages You To Have Meaningful Conversations For Better Dating
The beta web app is designed for customers with intermittent 4G data or no access to smartphones in the day.
Ever since its incubation and launch in 2012, Tinder has been smartphone focused. Now, the app¡¯s founders are attempting to bring the dating service to desktops, with a slight twist.
It¡¯s not that Tinder is necessarily easier to use on the smartphone, it¡¯s just that the medium lends itself to the addictive swipe-reward system that games like Candy Crush and Fruit Ninja also use. We like to see immediate results when we swipe, to the point that Tinder has become more of a pastime for a lot of users, rather than a legitimate way to meet new people.
It seems Tinder may have noticed this, or perhaps their design changes are purely coincidental. According to the company¡¯s blog, the reason behind building a web app is to extend their reach to customers with no or intermittent 4G access, or others who don¡¯t have access to a mobile phone through their school or work day. Either way, the app¡¯s desktop platform features a few aesthetic differences, designed to promote more frequent messaging.
What's the big deal?
While the essential swipe left or right remains, Tinder Online instead has you click and drag with your mouse, or use the arrow keys to choose potential dates. During this process, you still have any ongoing chats displayed in a list on the left side of your screen. The biggest difference, however, is once you match. When that happens, and you click the ¡°Send Message¡± button, the person¡¯s profile opens up to the side of your chat window.
This does more than just let you look at a pretty face while you chat. Instead, the wider interface allows for you to look at your match¡¯s biography, and form intelligent conversation based on what they say about themselves. In the long run, this could lead to more rewarding dates, as opposed to brusque one-liners to a formless person when your swiping is interrupted.
Tinder Online is currently being tested in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Indonesia, Italy, Mexico, Philippines, and Sweden, alongside a possible SMS login for smartphones in place of Facebook. While the latter feature is meant for countries with patchy data connections, it¡¯s still unclear if the feature will come to India. Tinder Online is expected to release in the US later this year, and will likely spread to other countries worldwide.