COVID got us to open up. The combination of being stuck at home and the fact that we were all going through the same thing at the same time led folks on Tinder to get chattier than ever. Globally, April 5th was the peak of this chattiness: on that day Tinder members sent an average of 52% more messages vs. the start of lockdowns in early March. Young Asians1 got particularly chatty: by mid-April, Asia’s Gen Z members1 sent an average of 49% more messages versus the start of lockdowns in early March.  Young Indians are the chattiest in the world with a 61% increase in messages sent, 9% higher than the Global average. As Sima Aunty would put it, ‘efforts are meaningless if the stars are not aligned,’ - the stars are definitely aligned for them!

Masks became the talk of Tinder. Some spent the early days of quarantine humble bragging about toilet paper and hand sanitizer stockpiles, with bio mentions of both peaking in late March. But talk turned to masks starting in April. Members touted their own mask-wearing habits (‘face mask tan lines’) or looked for shared mask POV, (‘if you wear a mask while jogging, we’re not compatible’). Mask-wearing habits may become the ultimate compatibility test of 2020. 

Quarantine led to creative hacks for hanging out. Social distancing turned us into creative digital daters. Forced to stay home, browsing Tinder became a way to socialize. At its peak, swipe volume2 among members under 25 was up by 39% globally. Young Koreans displayed the most openness to meet with new people, leading Asia with a 55% increase in swipe volume. By comparison, the average in Asia sits at 34% while globally, we’ve observed an increase of 39%. And with most places closed, many on Tinder looked to Animal Crossing to rendezvous. Early quarantine saw a 5x increase in Animal Crossing mentions in bios (Gen Z was 2x Millennials, btw).

And now Tinder is giving us more to talk about. Nothing drives a conversation like shared interests and experiences. But if you’re looking for more to bond over outside of a pandemic, Tinder is introducing two NEW hacks to amp your profile and your search for a potential match: 

• Conversation Starters - To help users better introduce themselves to potential matches, Tinder recently released Prompts, a new in-app feature that lets members respond to questions or finish a sentence for inclusion on their profile. Are you bingeing Unsolved Mysteries? Do you have a great idea for the perfect Animal Crossing date? Is the to your all the ? Let potential matches know and the conversations flow.
  • Open the Tinder app and tap the profile icon
  • Hit the “Add Media” button below your name/age
  • Select the “Create a New Prompt” option
  • Tap the dice icon at the upper middle portion of the screen to shuffle the prompt options, or select the list icon on the upper left hand side of the screen to read through all the available prompts.
  • Once you land on a prompt you like, type your chosen response into the text bar that says “Type Something”
  • Hit “Done”
  • Your prompt and response will be added to your profile! Hit the “Preview” button to view it.

• Common Interests - Interests makes it easy to fill out your profile and learn more about potential matches as you browse profiles. Are you a foodie? Trivia expert? Disney fanatic? Add your interests to your profile and let others shoot their shot, especially if they too like basketball/soccer/football. 

  • As a new member, you will be required to add at least 3 interests to your profile during onboarding. 

  • If you’re already a member, you can add/edit interests by editing your profile. 

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Notes for editor:

• Methodology - data was pulled from March through May 2020. Information included in this campaign represents overall Tinder trends, not the personal information of any specific, identified individual or member. App activity, messaging and bio data are representative of global Tinder activity between March and May 2020. When analysis references ‘at the peak of quarantine’, this refers to the highest point of a metric measured during the March - May 2020 period.

• 1 Country data extracted to create ‘Asia’/’Asians’ references include Indonesia, India, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam, for members under 25 years old

• 2 Swipe volume/swipe activity defined as when a member swipes left or right on a profile.

About Tinder
Tinder was introduced on a college campus in 2012 and is the world’s most popular app for meeting new people. It has been downloaded more than 340 million times and is available in 190 countries and 40+ languages. Tinder has more than 6 million subscribers and is the highest grossing non-gaming app globally.

For media enquiries, contact:

Weber Shandwick Singapore on behalf of Tinder APAC
tinderSG@webershandwick.com  

Papri Dev, Senior Director Communications APAC
papri.dev@gotinder.com