Tinder is launching a new feature called “Share My Date” that will make it easier for users to provide their friends and family with information about date plans and who they’re with.
The dating app said once a user plans a date with their match, they can use a link-share feature to provide their loved ones with the location, date, time and a photo of their match directly from the app.
The information can also be updated if plans are changed, Tinder said.
While the feature can add a layer of safety to in-person dates, Tinder doesn’t necessarily frame it as a safety feature.
Instead, the company said “getting ready for a date is more fun when we can share the excitement with our close circle,” and added that more than half of singles under 30 already tell their friends about upcoming date plans, based on Tinder research.
Online dating is the most popular way singles meet today, with Tinder being the most used dating app, according to a 2023 report from the Pew Research Center.
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But with that comes the disturbing trend of violence associated with online dating. Pew’s research found that roughly 1 in 10 women under 50 have received threats of physical harm on dating sites and apps.
A report published in ProPublica in 2019 found more than a third of women surveyed by the Columbia Journalism Institute reported being sexually assaulted by someone they met through an online dating platform. Additionally, a study published in the Journal of Interpersonal Violence in 2022 found that dating app-facilitated sexual assaults were more violent, prompting researchers to propose that the platforms are used by sexual predators as hunting grounds.
Tinder added a background check option to its app in 2022, but there is a processing fee and it’s not required for users to join the dating platform.
