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Friday, March 29
The Indiana Daily Student

student life

Tinder app revolutionizes student dating

Valentine’s Day is here. Cue single people panic.

Tinder, an application for iPhones, is a free flirting app that puts a twist on similar “hot-or-not” dating applications.

Tinder works by linking with people’s Facebook accounts, which helps build a brief Tinder profile with a few photos.

It then connects the person with other Tinder users based on their interests and mutual friends. Then they can swipe to the left or right to notify the app if the person interests them or not.

If two people “like” each other, a chat opens up and they can take it from there.

Tinder differs from other “hot-or-not” applications because it connects people that have similar interests and mutual friends, rather than presenting completely random matches, Tinder co-founder Sean Rad said in an interview with the Wall Street Journal.

According to an article from the Wall Street Journal, the app now has more than 100,000 users checking in every day, and its user base has increased by 750 percent in the last month alone.

Tinder has already made 10 million matches and 70 percent of those matches result in two-way communication.

Tinder user and sophomore Amanda Magaldi said she enjoys some of the app’s unique features.

“I like the mutual friends and ‘likes’ feature because I can determine if they are a person I would enjoy hanging out with based on what mutual friends and likes we have in common,” she said.

Tinder also allows users to display a current status, which is similar to features on websites such as Facebook.

“I enjoy the status feature because it allows you to write whatever you want about yourself all the way from a few words to an autobiography,” Magaldi said.

Junior Brandon Funkhouser said he enjoys using the app to connect and flirt with girls in the area.

“I’ve been connected with some pretty cool girls, although I’ve yet to go on a date with a girl I’ve met through the app,” Funkhouser said.

By connecting with Facebook, Tinder alleviates the concern of fake profiles.

“I like that Tinder connects me with friends of friends and not just random girls,” Funkhouser said.

Tinder requires mutual attraction before a line of communication is opened up. This makes it different from other apps such as OkCupid, where users can log in and message anybody.

Tinder was co-founded by Rad and Justin Mateen, and it has been steadily gaining users since it premiered in September 2012.

Rad and Mateen stressed the qualities of their app in an article in the Wall Street
Journal.

“Instead of a creepy dating service, it’s more like a game. And it seems to be working,” Rad said.

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