Tinder Double Date feature launches to combat declining users

Bored with navigating the web relationship panorama alone? Now you’ll be able to swipe proper together with buddies.

Tinder launched a double-dating characteristic Tuesday, permitting customers to create joint profiles with buddies to match with different pairs.

Double Date, because the characteristic is known as, is the refined model of the failed 2016 product Tinder Social, which was discontinued in 2017 over privacy concerns and user confusion about its objective.

To activate Double Date, customers choose as much as three buddies to create a pair with. Then they will browse and like different paired customers. When each pairs like one another, a gaggle chat opens between all 4 folks to coordinate plans.

The characteristic additionally permits customers to message people inside a matched pair privately in the event that they need to transition to a one-on-one dialog. Customers can preserve a number of pairings with completely different buddies whereas protecting their particular person relationship profile separate.

The characteristic was well-liked with younger customers when it was examined in Europe and Latin America. Cleo Lengthy, Tinder’s head of product advertising, mentioned the characteristic is supposed to assist relieve relationship stress for youthful customers.

“This can be a social-first expertise that’s actually meant to assist relieve a number of the strain that we all know loads of Gen Z experiences with relationship by making it extra social, extra enjoyable, and bringing your pals in to assist reinforce that consolation piece,” Long said.

West Hollywood-based Tinder said practically 90% of people that tried Double Date have been below 29, aligning with the corporate’s push to retain Gen Z.

The group dynamic seems to resonate with girls, who have been 3 times extra prone to present curiosity in paired profiles in comparison with particular person ones throughout testing. Customers in group chats additionally despatched considerably extra messages — about 35% greater than typical one-on-one conversations.

The corporate mentioned the characteristic helped carry customers to the platform. About 15% of people that accepted Double Date invites have been both fully new to Tinder or returning after a interval of inactivity.

The optimistic testing outcomes prompted Tinder to speed up its U.S. launch forward of schedule.

Tinder is owned by Match Group Inc., the corporate behind Hinge and OkCupid. It’s going through mounting strain on its enterprise. Within the first quarter of 2025, Match Group reported a 5% decline in paying subscribers throughout all its apps, whereas Tinder noticed a 7% decrease in subscriptions. In response to those shifts, Match made the choice to lay off approximately 325 employees, or 13% of its workforce.

These latest losses are a part of a broader pattern. Tinder’s paying person base has slipped from greater than 11 million subscribers in late 2022 to roughly 9.1 million immediately. The constant decline has caught the eye of activist traders, together with Elliott Funding Administration.

The mounting strain led to important management adjustments throughout the firm. In Could, Tinder Chief Government Faye Iosotaluno introduced she would step down in July after lower than two years within the function. Spencer Rascoff, who was appointed Match chief govt in February to sort out the slowdown in person engagement, stepped in to guide Tinder instantly.

Rascoff has outlined an bold technology-focused turnaround plan. In an internal memo seen by the Wall Road Journal, he known as on workers to hurry up product adjustments and use synthetic intelligence, emphasizing that workers ought to prioritize person expertise over short-term income.

The corporate has rolled out AI options that assist customers create higher profiles and immediate them to rethink probably inappropriate messages earlier than sending them.

Tinder has additionally launched “The Recreation Recreation,” which makes use of OpenAI’s speech-to-speech know-how to let customers observe flirting with AI-generated personas in over-the-top eventualities designed to scale back relationship anxiousness by humor.

In the course of the firm’s first quarter earnings name, Rascoff famous that Match’s apps have fallen out of favor with youthful daters as a result of many noticed utilizing them as a “numbers recreation.” He believes Double Date might help shift perceptions, calling it much less “hook-uppy” and extra about having “a superb time as buddies.”

Tinder’s struggles replicate broader developments within the relationship app business. Courting apps have been shedding their attraction amongst singles in recent times, particularly Gen Z, the technology born between 1997 and 2012. Only 26% of on-line relationship companies customers within the U.S. are 18 to 29 years outdated, whereas 30 to 49-year-olds comprise 61% of that very same person base.

Gen Z more and more prefers assembly potential companions by mutual buddies and real-world gatherings.

Los Angeles has develop into a testing floor for dating alternatives that skip swiping entirely. Begin-ups like El Segundo-based First Spherical’s on Me encourage rapid in-person meetups, whereas Venice’s Lox Membership hosts weekly group occasions for singles to mingle.

Whether or not Double Date can reverse Tinder’s fortunes stays to be seen, however Rascoff is betting that the way forward for relationship lies not in perfecting the swipe, however in reimagining how folks join.

Gen Z is “not a hookup technology,” he mentioned. “They don’t drink as a lot alcohol, they don’t have as a lot intercourse. We have to adapt our merchandise to just accept that actuality.”