Facebook Messenger Testing Tinder-Style Connection Features

Facebook is testing new Tinder-style tools for its Messenger platform.

New reports reveal Facebook is testing a new system to help users connect with friends by asking whether they want to meet up with them.

The tool would ask, for example: “Want to meet up with Serena this week?”.

You are then asked to choose whether you want to, with a simple yes or no.

If you choose no, however, Facebook informs you that: “Your response is private unless you both say yes”, much like Tinder’s double opt-in system.

A Facebook spokesperson told Motherboard, who spotted the test: “People often use Facebook to make plans with their friends.

“So, we’re running a very small test in the Facebook app to make that easier.”

The Motherboard journalist discovered the tool after they were sent a notification saying: “[Name redacted] and 15 others may want to meet up with you this week.”

It seems the tool is designed to connect users of Facebook with friends they haven’t interacted with for a while.

In addition to this new test, Facebook is also rolling out a feature that allows you to “get to know” your friends’ friends.

The tool opens up a “carousel” of potential friend-of-friend connections, showing you things like events you both attended, pages you both like and places you have both lived or worked.

So far, neither feature has any explicit dating tendencies, despite the echoes the friends-of-friends tool has to the world of online dating.

As with previous features like Nearby Friends, a lot will depend on the responses to the tests, which will hint at whether there is an appetite for these kind of connection tools on Facebook.

Read more here.