Tinder taps AI that can analyze your camera roll to find better matches
As Tinder’s paid subscriber count dwindles, Match Group wants to fight “swipe fatigue” with new features.
If you’ve grappled with describing yourself in an online dating profile beyond liking dogs, food, and walks on the beach, don’t worry: an AI matchmaker might soon be able to ascertain your interests for you.
As long as you give it access to all of your personal photos, of course.
In its weaker-than-expected third-quarter earnings on Tuesday, Match Group emphasized accelerating product innovation as a way to spark sales growth at its crown jewel, Tinder. Indeed, the swipe-centric dating app saw paid subscribers fall by 7% year over year in Q3 — marking nine consecutive quarters of payer numbers declining.
One way Match plans to win over free users is by providing Tinder payers with more compatible matches, thus combating so-called “swipe fatigue.”
How? A new AI-powered “Chemistry” feature that will learn about users’ personalities via a series of questions... and, with permission, look through their camera rolls for further clues about their hobbies, likes, and dislikes.
Cupid’s bot
According to CEO Spencer Rascoff, the company intends to make the “interactive matching feature” a “major pillar of Tinder’s upcoming 2026 product experience” — with Match’s Q4 guidance outlining a $14 million hit to the app’s direct revenue from user experience testing.
(And, if a Match-made bot scanning your private pictures feels invasive, fret not! It won’t be the only one: Meta launched a similar edit-suggesting AI feature only last month, alongside a slew of other apps that use the tech and request access to photos.)
Total swipeout
This isn’t the first time that Tinder has trialed unconventional courting methods to return to growth, but it may be the most crucial. While Match Group’s Hinge remains a rare bright spot in the online dating space, rival app Bumble reported paying users tumbling 18% in Q3 on Wednesday.
Perhaps swipe-weary singles are showing dating apps the door — or perhaps people are just no longer willing to pay for them. Earlier this week, Meta released figures for Facebook Dating. Surprisingly, the free-to-use, social-linked platform has 21.5 million daily active users, and even more surprising is that nearly 1.8 million of these are 18 to 29 years old.
