Tinder lanza opción de citas a ciegas: el match lo prepara la aplicación / Tinder introduces a way for members to go on virtual ‘blind dates’

Esta nueva función ya está disponible en los Estados Unidos y eventualmente llegará al resto del mundo

Inspirado en la nueva serie de Netflix Love is Blind, o en español El amor es ciego, Tinder lanzará una nueva función que permitirá emparejar personas sin conocer sus perfiles.

La aplicación de citas quiere quitar la presión en el físico de las personas y que la personalidad esté en primer lugar. Esto ya que la persona tendrá que hacer una buena conversación para causar una buena primera impresión.

Esta nueva experiencia será llamada Blind Date y consiste en un chat rápido en donde las personas tendrán preguntas aleatorias que ayudarán a romper el hielo.

Habrá preguntas como: “Está bien usar una camisa __ veces sin lavarla”.

Tinder lanza una nueva opción
Luego de responder, los participantes entrarán a un chat cronometrado.

En esta función lo único que sabrán de la otra persona son sus respuestas a dichas preguntas.

Después de que se termine el temporizador, si los usuarios desean y quieren seguir conociéndose, sus perfiles serán revelados entre sí.

Tinder realizó una prueba de esta nueva función y 40% de las personas que usaron el chat rápido tampoco vieron el perfil del otro participante.

Además tuvieron más coincidencias que aquellos que vieron la foto primero.

Rechazar o ignorar conversación
Sin embargo, el usuario, sin importar que tan buena estuvo la conversación, puede rechazar o ignorar al otro una vez que su perfil se revele.

Y, si quiere, tendrá la opción de emparejarse con alguien nuevo.

Esta nueva función ya está disponible en los Estados Unidos y eventualmente llegará al resto del mundo.
Por GDA | El Tiempo | Colombia

Tinder introduces a way for members to go on virtual ‘blind dates’

Tinder is bringing back the idea of the “blind date” through a new in-app feature, launching today. Except, in this case, Tinder isn’t sending out two members on a blind date together — it’s introducing them to one another through a social chatting feature that will allow them to interact and chat before they can view each others’ profiles. The feature aims to encourage people to gauge their first impressions of one another based on personality and conversation, instead of photos.

Tinder parent company Match Group teased its plans for the addition during last week’s earnings, noting how Tinder’s still relatively new “Explore” section helps the dating app maker try out new experiences in the app to continue engaging its users. First introduced last September, Explore today is home to a variety of Tinder’s interactive features, including its “Swipe Night” video series, as well as ways to discover matches by interests or dive into quick chats before matching. The latter, which Tinder calls “Fast Chat,” also powers the Blind Date feature.

To use Blind Date, members will first answer a handful of icebreaker questions before being paired with someone else based on commonalities. They’ll then enter a timed chat experience where they won’t know any of the details about the person they’re messaging, beyond their answers to the multiple-choice prompts. These will be lightweight, sometimes even silly questions, like “It’s OK to wear a shirt _ times without washing it” or “I put ketchup on_.” When the timer runs out, the two members can view each other’s profile, then like it if they want to make a match and continue getting to know each other.

Tinder says the new experience better reflects the dating culture of Gen Z users, who value authenticity. During tests, Blind Date proved to be fairly successful, the company says — those who used the feature made 40% more matches than those using another Fast Chat feature where profiles were visible. This encouraged Tinder to roll out the option more broadly.

Of course, there’s a bit of irony to a top dating app like Tinder introducing a way to connect users where photos are not the immediate focus. Tinder and other modern dating apps have been accused by critics of turning dating into a superficial environment, where decisions about people are made in less than a second based on the perceived attractiveness of someone’s photos. This has sparked an entirely new subgroup of dating apps to emerge which bill themselves as “anti-superficial” and more authentic. In these apps, photos are hidden or members connect via voice chat, among other things, in order to connect people first on personality, not looks. This group includes startups like S’More, SwoonMe, Jigsaw and others.

But instead of building out a whole new app for this type of experience, Tinder believes the concept of blind dating can be just an option within its own app.

“There’s something really special about letting conversation introduce someone’s personality, without the preconceptions that can be made from photos,” said Kyle Miller, VP of Product Innovation at Tinder, in an announcement about the launch of Fast Chat: Blind Date, as it’s called. “The new Blind Date experience brings a surprisingly fun, banter-based way to interact and create connections that’s all new to Tinder,” he added.

Blind Date is rolling out today in Explore to Tinder users in all English-speaking markets. It will roll out globally in the weeks ahead. Sarah Perez