Love is a scam. Anyway, Tinder is adding a new Incognito Mode for paid users, which will only show other potential paramours your profile if you’ve already swiped right on them. The new feature was announced today alongside several other free updates designed to improve safety on the dating app.
The unfortunate truth of dating is that you can’t find someone unless you put yourself out there to be found. Sadly, being “out there” is an incredibly unappealing prospect to many, especially if you’re introverted, anxious, a woman, or have a reasonable and healthy fear of the mortifying ordeal of being known(Opens in a new tab).
Tinder’s new Incognito Mode will potentially mitigate this awful experience by allowing you to hide from everyone but the people you’ve decided can see you(Opens in a new tab). Once you’ve deemed them acceptable by liking their profile, you will begin to show up in the carousel of bored singles Tinder presents to them, giving them the opportunity to hopefully like you back.
Of course, this does put some onus on you to actually like people rather than passively wait for them to like you first. But Tinder can’t do all the work for you.
Credit: Tinder
While Incognito Mode is only available to people who are subscribed to Tinder+, Gold, or Premium, there are also other new safety features available to everyone.
One of these features is the ability to block people’s profiles without matching with them first. Previously, you could only block other Tinder users by either inputting the person’s contact details preemptively or reporting them first, by which point you’ve probably already had an unpleasant experience.
This means Tinder won’t keep suggesting people you’re not interested in like that persistent family friend who thinks you’d get along great with their nephew. It sounds like a good addition to help reduce time spent rejecting the same profiles over and over, as well as avoid the awkward, icky feeling of seeing your sister keep popping up.
Tinder is also adding long press reporting, allowing you to tap and hold chat messages to directly start the reporting process. This makes it easier to flag harassment, hate speech, or any other offensive texts that violate the app’s Community Guidelines(Opens in a new tab), ideally encouraging more people to do so.
Finally, Tinder is updating its “Does This Bother You?” and “Are You Sure?” features to expand the content they consider inappropriate, including terms related to hate speech, sexual exploitation, and harassment.
Previously these features were triggered when Tinder detected messages which might be overtly sexual or violent, showing users the above questions and encouraging them to report it — or rethink their phrasing if they’re the one who wrote it. Now it seems they’ll be used to help corral Tinder users back in line for other violations as well.
