Yesterday, Tinder announced a brand new way for users to like each other, called “Super Like”.
The feature lets singles tell someone they are special, by flicking their profile upwards to give them a Super Like.
This is a limited feature – early users are only allowed one per day – and is designed to give singles a new way to show their interest.
If someone super likes your profile, you know this because their profile will be highlighted blue when it appears in your Tinder feed.
And Tinder CEO and co-founder Sean Rad has said this feature will be followed by a number of new ways for singles to connect, and filter each other, over the coming months.
Speaking about the new release, he said: “A ‘like’, or ‘Swipe Right’ has long served as an anonymous way to express interest in someone, similar to a glance across the room.
“Because they’re so limited in number, a Super Like, or a ‘swipe up’, sends a more powerful signal, conveying an especially high level of interest. People like to know that someone finds them special, and we think this will lead to even better matches.
“In this and future product releases we’re focused on maintaining the incredible fun of the Tinder community while providing our users with better tools for making great connections.”
While the feature is currently free, one could certainly see Tinder packaging it into its premium offering, Tinder Plus, with paying customers getting access to more Super Likes.
And with the launch, Tinder’s Passport feature is being relegated to the Discovery Preferences, with Super Like’s blue star taking the place of Passport’s blue pin.
As we said yesterday, this may hint that Passport wasn’t a hugely popular feature, and Tinder wanted to replace it with something singles are more likely to use, and potentially pay for.
Earlier in the year, the IAC-owned app released Tinder Plus, which gave users the Undo button and Passport feature, along with unlimited swiping and an ad-free browsing experience.
While exact numbers regarding subscribers have not been released, after IAC’s last earnings report, analysts estimated the number was probably around 500,000.
With the forthcoming product releases Rad mentioned, Tinder may well be looking to update its premium product, tempting users to pay for the service by giving them more features they’d pay to use.
Speaking to TechCrunch, Rad said the new features are focused on helping singles “digest the sheer volume of people on the app”, by letting singles filter the masses and find someone special.
Super Like is certainly an interesting new feature – albeit an idea many other dating services have implemented before – and the fact that it is scarce may well make singles want to pay extra to get more “superpower” likes, should Tinder choose to add it to Tinder Plus.
However you can’t help thinking Tinder could have more success if singles could just pay $1 for an extra few Super Likes, or the chance to Undo a profile – rather than having to shell out $10 for a monthly subscription.
With yesterday’s release comes a marketing campaign for Super Like called #BehindTheStar, and Tinder has teamed up with Culprit Creative and VFX by Ingenuity Studios – the team behind Taylor Swift’s Bad Blood video – for its high-production promo video.
The video stars supermodels Nina Agdal and Erin Heatherton – who will be featuring in forthcoming product and marketing ideas.
Speaking about Heatherton, Rad said: “Erin has a deep understanding of our audience, particularly millennials, and we look forward to working with her on new Tinder opportunities going forward.”
Tinder users in Australia will be the first to try out the Super Like feature, and will receive one Super Like per day, with more markets added in the coming weeks and months.
Check out the promo video below: