So Tinder’s CEO and co-founder Sean Rad might now have finally stepped down amidst sexual harassment claims, but the dating app is still powering through pushing through the first revenue generation development of Tinder – the app has had some investment, but so far has not made any money the £9.99 ‘Tinder Plus’.
Disappointingly the app, which now has an eye watering 10 million users worldwide (but, perplexingly, not one single non-lunatic option for me?), will not be taking on any of our recommended functions including the essential man wearing a chequered trilby filter. Regardless, the new functions which a limited number of users in places like the UK and Western Europe (the update will not be available in the US until the test period is over) seem kind of worth the rumoured £9.99 price tag.
Not unlike real life, Tinder has never offered a ‘undo’ button, meaning if you got swipe-happy rejecting people you could very easily swipe-right on a potential future love of your life and loose them forever. Or at least you could accidentally swipe right on someone fit enough to warrant a snog. Obviously, neither of these options are ideal. But as-yet unconfirmed reports have implied that this might no longer be a problem for Tinder users willing to cough up the cash for the premium product, because an undo button could be the most desirable new function of Tinder Plus. Before he left, Sean Rad said, ‘The most-requested feature we get is a button to go back and have a second chance with people that users swipe left on. Everyone has wanted it from the beginning. It’s absolutely at the top of the list.’
Tinder apparently plans to put a big yellow Undo button on the home screen in the hope it will encourage people to actually spend money to use it. I once swiped right on someone who looked like a combination of a young Marlon Brando and Cillian Murphy, so I’ve got to admit, I’d be tempted.
**READ MORE: A Few Features We'd Happily Cough Up For On Tinder's New Paid For Service **
Perhaps less interesting to anyone who isn’t an international playboy, a drug smuggler, doesn’t travel for work or basically can’t afford more than one holiday a year is the Passport function, which lets people search for matches outside the current 100 mile restriction area. Basically what this means is, if you’re travelling to another country any time soon, you can browse singles in that area, line up a few dates and figure out if you need to pack date-night lingerie before you’ve even lugged your case down from the attic. Rad explained, ‘We often hear that people want to be able to start swiping in a location before they’ve left to go on a trip or holiday, and that once they've actually made a meaningful connection with someone in a new location, their trip has come to an end.
‘We also hear people saying that they want to get recommendations for places to go and where to eat in a new city, and Tinder Plus can do better at that.’
Despite Rad’s enthusiasm for the feature, we’re pretty sure it would only come in handy once or twice a year for most Tinder users and most of the time it would just be an annoying reminder of how fit everyone is 100s of miles away from you and what poor offerings there are closer to home. Rad admits this might be a bit of an issue:
‘A lot of users will be paying for the feature, and the voyeuristic quality probably isn’t enough of a value add as opposed to those who are actually travelling.’
Having a look at what potential singles there are in a city you might not ever go to simply for the sake of voyeurism? Yeah, we’re not so sure either…
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.