Online dating may be the best way to meet your life partner, but using a dating service isn't without risk. Tinder is attempting to reduce that risk by adding three new safety features to its app.
As Elie Seidman, CEO of Tinder, explains on the company's blog, "Every day, millions of our members trust us to introduce them to new people, and we're dedicated to building innovative safety features powered by best-in-class technology that meet the needs of today's daters ... I'm proud to share these updates, which represent an important step in driving our safety work forward at an unmatched scale."
The first of the three new safety features is also the most important. Tinder is now integrated with Noonlight, which describes itself as a "silent bodyguard" for its users. It allows the details of a date to be entered into Noonlight's Timeline before it happens, then if anything untoward happens during the date you can discreetly trigger emergency services. Noonlight knows your location, so someone can hopefully get to you quickly.
The second safety feature is called Photo Verification and helps reassure anyone viewing your profile that the photos they see are authentic. To achieve verification, a Tinder user self-authenticates by taking a series of real-time selfies which Tinder then compares to your profile photos. "Human-assisted AI" decides if your photos are true-to-life and if so, adds a blue checkmark to them. I suspect it won't be long before a lack of checkmarks on Tinder profile photos is met with suspicion swiftly followed by a rejection.
The final safety feature being introduced is a new section in the Tinder app called Safety Center. It was developed in collaboration with the Match Group Advisory Council and provides information on new features as well as an evolving collection of "resources and tools." Tinder intends to personalize the experience for each user eventually.
One other new feature worth mentioning detects when an offensive message has been sent to a user using a mix of machine learning and the Tinder community. On detection, a user will receive a "Does This Bother You?" prompt which allows the person who sent the message to be reported quickly.
If you don't see these new features in your Tinder app immediately, don't worry, they are being rolled out to select markets first and then should be widely available before the end of the year.