The Tinder Algorithm

Tinder, a dating app which I'm sure you must've used, dated someone or made someone through, or would've simply deleted the app because you couldn't get enough matches. (the latter holds true for guys, mostly). In this article, I give you a sense of how the Tinder algorithm probably works, hope it helps you get more matches; if not, it atleast gives you an insight on how a dating app works.

So what are the two major points we all know about tinder?

1. It is a dating site.
2. The number of guys on the app is significantly higher than the number of girls. And hence only a few guy cards actually end being viewed by a girl, let alone be swiped right, unless she uses the app very often.

Why should tinder show a guy’s profile to a girl? You should either be attractive, and/or a conversationalist and importantly, not a creep. How does tinder judge you on these parameters? It ranks you.

Some obvious metrics become your age as received from your Facebook account, your interests, the number of people you’re friends with, your profession and your geographical location and needless to say, the number of matches you get on the app after a point of time. But that’s just the initial part. Tinder judges you on various parameters on how your activity is like on the app.

As a product manager of a mobile app, I’ll give you a heads up how features are built. We make use of a lot of data; we track every button that a user clicks, every page he/she views to track the user behavior towards a feature, and basis that we build a feature. We call every activity on an app an event.

So every time you swipe right or left, view a picture, write a description, remove one, an event is fired corresponding to your account. What are the prime events that form the basis for tinder to judge you to show your card to a girl?

1. If you’re crossing the cap on the number of right swipes everyday, tinder would consider that negatively against you. Why? Because you don’t have a choice, and you’re pretty much swiping right to every person you stumble upon hoping to get a match. That is just desperate for normal people, and for the algorithm.
2. What is the average amount of time that you’re spending on a card before taking a decision to swipe right or left? If you take a decent amount of time to consume a profile and then make a right/left swipe, you’d be rated higher by the algorithm. The reason is obvious, you’re making a slightly more informed decision to like a profile.
3. Continuing on point 2 - When would time be consumed in viewing a profile? When someone actually opens a card to view more pictures. A more logical explanation would actually be a funnel, which is the series of events a user performs on the app.Open the card -> Scroll down to read the description -> Spend time on the portion of the card that actually has the description of the girl. But how are points 2. and 3. justified?

• This is how the previous version of the app used to look like:

• And this is how the current version(5.3.3) looks like:

• Noticed the difference apart from the super like feature? In the previous version of the app, you would see cards stacked one after the other, while now you get to see one card at a time. In the previous version, a user can have a tendency to swipe quicker since he subconsciously knows there are more cards coming his way. But now that he only sees one card at a time, he spends more time on that card, subconsciously thinking there aren’t too many left. (Despite the fact that the number of cards probably coming his way is still the same)

4. Writing a description on the app, highly rated by the algorithm. The algorithm I’ve observed parses the sentences you’ve written and picks up meaningful words called ‘stop words’, and shows your card to people who’ve written same/synonymous stop words. This, needless to say results in more meaningful conversations.

5. If you uninstall the app after a good amount of time, and reinstall it after a few days, it is very likely that you will have a match or two. Tinder shows your card to a few people and gets you matched immediately after you uninstall. Reason? It wants to hold you back, and make you feel there is a chance of finding someone. It basically wants you to stay, like every other app does.

6. Are you a conversationalist? The algorithm takes this as a significant factor to show your card. It counts so basis the average number of ‘message send’ events that are triggered from your end, and your match’s end. This indicates to the algorithm that you’re someone who can make your match spend more time on the app.

7. With the recent launch of the Tinder social, if you go out with a female companion who is a Facebook friend, and she replies to your message on the app, your attractiveness score goes significantly higher. Reason - you have female friends who know you, and who is okay and open with talking to you on a dating app.

As far as the girls are concerned, you don’t get to see a major chunk of the guys that swipe right to your card. Feel cheated right? But there’s a pretty legit reason to it. If a girl gets a match on every right swipe right she makes, it would make her believe that the app has a bunch of creeps on it, and basically kills the suspense factor for the girl, and hence gamification on the app. Hence, tinder makes sure girls get to see the guys, who basis the algorithm can have the most meaningful conversation/date with them.

I’d love to hear from you guys on more points that you think are incorporated in the algorithm!