Tinder updated its app with several new security features, with the first of these being released last January 28, in a bid to make the dating experience feel much safer.
Match Group, the company that owns Tinder and other dating apps, announced that a panic button, photo verification, and an offensive message feature were added.
Learn more about the added features here:
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These new features will likely be added to the company’s other dating apps such as OkCupid, Hinge, and Match.com within the year.
The panic button is the first of the features that were added and a new section of the app, called the Safety Center, will serve as the portal for accessing them. The Safety Center will also contain dating safety tips and allow them to enter the date, time, and location of upcoming dates into a “Tinder Timeline” that they can share with friends.
But the Noonlight app, which users will need to download separately, will be needed to access the Safety Center. The Noonlight app will enable location tracking and users also have the option of adding a blue badge to their profile. Match Group’s CEO, Mandy Ginsberg, likens this to a lawn sign that informs others that the user is protected.
Pressing and holding the panic button will alert Noonlight dispatchers who will then send a text containing a code, and then call. Should the call be unanswered, the dispatchers will contact emergency services.
The photo verification feature will screen the app for catfish and hopefully reduce the need for the panic button. After taking photos that match a series of sample poses, users will receive a blue verification mark that will be on their profiles. The Tinder community team then compares the uploaded photos with previously uploaded photos in the app to check for consistency.
The offensive message featured, called “Does This Bother You?”, facilitates the reporting of offensive messages. An AI algorithm will flag potentially inappropriate messages and query the user if they are “bothered” by its content.
Should the answer be yes, the user can report their match. A future update with improved machine learning may include an “Undo” feature to warn senders of potentially inappropriate content in their message. It mirrors Instagram’s 2019 “Are You Sure You Want To Post This?”
The last two features are currently being tested in smaller areas before they are released to the rest of the user base.
Tinder is a bit late to the game when it comes to security updates. Uber users in the US have had a panic button since 2018. Bumble introduced photo verification in 2016, and Instagram instituted anti-bullying features in 2019.
While Tinder’s updates are a welcome one, there are still aspects that are lacking, such as screening users for criminal history, particularly sex crimes. And since the panic button is not located in-app, it could make it difficult for users to access in a pinch.
For those concerned about privacy, while Noonlight does use location tracking, Ginsberg assured people that the data will not be utilized for marketing. But Gizmodo has some recent findings showing that the data is sent to third parties like Facebook, YouTube, Braze, Appboy, and Kochava.
In that case, it’s a question of how much of a trade-off is acceptable between privacy and safety. But while it’s not perfect, it’s still better than nothing.
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