Tinder has today announced the rollout of several new features and refinements to existing ones to make the dating experience more pleasant
(Picture: Tinder)Any Londoner who has used a dating app to find love will know that prospective matches aren’t always the model of respect and decency, to put it mildly.
To try to counter the problem of in-app harassment, Tinder has today announced the rollout of several new features and refinements to existing ones. These aim to make the whole dating experience more pleasant.
The most interesting of these — Incognito — is, unfortunately, paywalled to those who subscribe to Tinder Plus, Gold or Premium, the prices of which vary from user to user. It allows subscribers to Like and Nope in the app, while being seen only by those who they’ve already Liked. That not only gives more control to users, but also sidesteps the risk of being spotted by friends, relatives and colleagues.
Speaking of avoiding those you’d rather not see, another new feature is the ability to block profiles before matching. If you see the profile of someone you’d rather avoid, you can preemptively block them so they don’t show up again. Tinder describes this as “an easy way to avoid seeing a boss or an ex”, and it will arrive on Android first, before following on iOS in the first quarter of 2023.
Of course, plenty of blockings happen after users have matched, when messages take a turn for the nasty. And Tinder wants to make it easier for users to report bad behaviour with Long Press Reporting. Simply tap and hold an offensive message, and you can directly report it to Tinder so that the company can “take appropriate action against accounts that violate the Community Guidelines”.
But Tinder is also hopeful that it can nudge people towards better behaviour, with refinements to its “Are You Sure?” system.
First introduced in 2021, the feature operates if it detects “harmful language”. A simple prompt asks users whether they’re sure they want to send a message, pointing out that “your match may find this language disrespectful”.
Tinder has previously reported that more than 10 per cent of messages that generate the prompt are amended or withdrawn. The company has also added more keyphrases to its filter, related to hate speech, sexual exploitation and harassment.
This safeguard has a partner function for those on the receiving end of messages — “Does This Bother You?”. If a match ignores the warnings and sends anyway, the receiver receives a prompt asking if the message bothers them. This encourages offended parties to report harmful missives so the company can take appropriate action.
This prompt has already increased the reporting of dubious messages by 46 per cent. Tinder hopes this figure will rise now that it has been expanded to include more language.
While nobody expects these changes to transform the sometimes nasty world of online dating completely, they are nonetheless steps that increase privacy, nudge towards better etiquette and streamline the reporting process. Hopefully that will make being a single Londoner that bit more enjoyable in 2023.
