From low-rise jeans to reruns of the sitcom Friends, generation Z has a seemingly endless appetite for 90s and early 00s nostalgia.
Now that extends to their romantic lives, as Tinder has introduced a blind date feature to boost its popularity among young people – by enabling them to meet partners in a way that resembles the pre-smartphone era.
The new feature on the dating app matches people based on preferences, and enables them to make conversation before they are allowed to view each other’s photos. It will shortly be available in the US before being expanded globally.
Tinder says the feature is intended to respond to demands from generation Z, usually defined as people born between 1997 and 2012, for more authentic connections as a backlash to online dating’s earlier emphasis on superficial judgments based on preened Instagram-ready photos on dating profiles.
A survey of 1,000 18-24-year-olds in the UK commissioned by the app found that a fifth said they would like to try blind dating as it would enable them to meet people they might otherwise have overlooked.
Tinder said: “Inspired by the OG way to meet someone new, usually at the hand of a meddlesome aunt or well-meaning friend, blind date gives the daters of today a low-pressure way to put their personality first and find a match they truly vibe with.
“The experience reflects the modern dating habits of gen Z, who value authenticity, and also taps into their 90s nostalgia with a callback to dating in a pre-smartphone world.”
The company said its early testing suggested that members who used the blind date feature made 40% more matches than when their profiles were visible.
The blind date feature functions by asking users to complete a series of icebreaker-style questions, and then pairing them with others based on similar responses. Users then enter a timed chat in which they only receive these answers as prompts, including responses to questions such as “It’s OK to wear a shirt ____ times without washing it” and “I put ketchup on____”. When the timer runs out, users can like the other person’s profile, and if there’s a match they can see photos and continue chatting.
Blind date is part of a new suite of interactive games on Tinder named Explore, which is targeted at gen Z consumers and with an interface that has been likened to TikTok. These include swipe night, a choose-your-own-adventure game, and hot takes, where users discuss controversial opinions.
Tinder first launched on a US college campus in 2012, and was initially met with some suspicion. A now-infamous Vanity Fair article in 2015 warned that it would usher in a “dating apocalypse” and the end of romance. In the decade since, it has transformed how people meet romantic partners, and is the world’s most popular app for meeting new people.
