Here's How Tinder Social Works

Today, Tinder launched Tinder Social, which means you can now go out in groups — you can create them, meet new people, and plan a fun night out — platonically (or not). But how does Tinder Social work? Think of it like a group text/Tinder Meetup group, where users with common interests choose an activity to do, from going to check out a new band to exploring that new speakeasy.

“We’ve always been about connecting people,” a Tinder spokesperson tells Bustle. “Tinder Social is another great way to get out tonight and connect with other people going out — with the same network, the same power and the same scalability that Tinder brought to dating.”

ICYMI, Tinder is uber popular — not only does it have over 50 million users in 196 countries worldwide, but, each day, 26 million matches are made via the app, and over 11 billion (!) have been made to date. But, once you meet someone on the app, you get off the app. Not anymore. Even if you’re off Tinder because you’re now coupled up, you and your bae can both go back on just to be social. A win-win, right?

Tinder Social first launched in Australia. In doing so, Tinder discovered that people wanted to plan a night out with friends, like, now — tonight. So, Tinder decided to expand Tinder Social to more users worldwide — in the U.S., UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and India.

“Tinder Social is designed to make it as easy as possible to plan your night, get out into the real world and meet new people. The new feature takes the Tinder experience to a new level, offering our users more ways to expand their social circles and interact with potential matches,” said Sean Rad, CEO and co-founder of Tinder, in a press release announcing the new Tinder feature. “We believe it’s the ultimate tool for planning your next adventure.”

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Here’s how Tinder Social works:

1. Unlock It

As a Tinder user, you get to decide if you want to “unlock” Tinder Social or not, once you download the app’s latest update. As someone who’s no longer on Tinder, but only met quality people on it (honestly), I’d sign up for Tinder Social in a second. Plus, I recently relocated to a new city, so my boyfriend and I would love to go exploring with like-minded people.

2. Create A Group

Once you’ve unlocked Tinder Social, it’s easy to create a group. Just select 1-3 friends (who have also unlocked Tinder Social, of course; hint: tell them to), then assign a “group status” — aka choose from a variety of suggested activities like “Happy Hour, anyone?” or “Going to a concert tonight.”

You can only be in one group, which makes sense, as Tindering and messaging with more than one person at a time gets confusing enough — can you imagine juggling multiple groups at a time?! Plus, there’s an expiration date for groups (see #6), so this is NBD, one group at once.

3. Start Swiping

Time to start swiping on groups! A group member from both groups needs to swipe right for it be to a “match” and you can all chat once a match is made.

4. Start Chatting (Quickly!)

Have a match? Just like some other dating apps these days, which require you to message someone within 24 hours, Tinder Social gives you a timeline, too, and deletes your conversation thread at noon the next day (in the timezone of the group creator, unless the creator ends it before then).

5. You Can Unmatch With A Group Before The Deadline, Too

If you’re not feelin’ the group you’ve matched up with, no prob — just unmatch. And if everyone but the creator leaves the group, the group expires.

6. You Can Turn Off Tinder Social Anytime

Yep, some days, you can just focus on dating. Others, you can focus on Tinder Social.

You know how dating on Tinder (or via any app or site for that matter) can be… scary? Well, it seems like it would be less so with Tinder Social. After all, you always have your friends to fall back on — and may also find a love connection in the process.

Images: Fotolia; Tinder