If you wanted to be on Tinder, but didn’t really want to install the app on your phone (for whatever reasons, we don’t judge) there’s good news in store for you – Tinder has officially announced a desktop version of their popular social search platform. The dating app and its services will be available on Tinder.com as a web app. And before you leave to check it out – as of now the website still shows a ‘Tinder Online is coming soon’ message if you try to access it in India, so you might have to wait a little longer. The app is reportedly being tested in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, and Indonesia, where users with weaker cell connections can use it from their desktops.
As the blog post explains, Tinder has mainly been a mobile based platform so far because, well, it was a mobile app. The problem with that is, not everyone has consistent good connectivity on their smartphones and even if they do, sometimes the phone just doesn’t have enough memory to afford even one additional app (the app is a huge 128 MB on iOS and 43MB on Play Store), irrespective of how crucial it is to your social life. Or sometimes you just can’t afford that kind of *ahem* visibility, ironically. Whatever might be the reason, this app would definitely make the life of manic right-left swipers much easier. Now, Tinder can be accessed from the confines of office cubicles or college lectures, without worrying about being caught off guard – just one *cough*incognito*cough* tab away.
Check out the product demo below:
As the demo shows, the app works in pretty much the same way, with the mouse cursor filling in for your thumb (now devoid of its ability to pass judgement). The web interface also highlights your matched conversations in a fixed panel on the left, which indicates a greater emphasis on conversation. After all, you’re here for the ‘personalities’ of all those matches, right?
Overall, the move to the browser might spell success, due to greater visibility, or nothing significant, because of the phone experience being much more fluid and pervasive in people's minds. It will be a much clearer picture once the web platform actually releases in India.