The popular dating application Tinder has managed to turn its "swipe left, swipe right" gesture into a more branded substitute for simply liking or not liking a particular person, especially in terms of their looks.
Now, Tinder plans to bleed that branding into a much more pervasive dialogue, with the app crossing over into a wider territory, letting people not only swipe left or right if they fancy a person, but, well, letting people swipe on anything.
Tinder is rolling out Tinder Stacks to iMessage, a new feature where you can stack photos, send them to select friends and let them decide which option trumps the other ones. The photos can represent an unlimited number of topics, be it a new dress or a new phone. Possibilities are left to the imagination.
"Not sure which party shot you should post from last night? Stack it. Need input on which filter you should add to your beach photos? Stack it," says Tinder.
While not a stand-alone app in and of itself, users who have Tinder installed will automatically have it integrated with iMessage, that is if you have "Automatically add apps" in iMessage turned on.
Users who don't have it installed would have to download the Tinder app from the App store to get Tinder Stacks. Of course, your iPhone must be running on iOS 10.
Once you get it to work, it's practically an uncomplicated and intuitive affair. From iMessage, you launch Tinder Stacks, tap on "Start a Stack," select the photos to be included in the stack, name it, send it, and wait for all of your friends to cast their votes. As a bonus, you can even issue your own vote.
With Tinder Stacks, the company attempts to broaden its user base and target demographic. Users who are typically not interested in dating apps can find something relatable in Tinder Stacks. Every person who has ever faced a daunting or trivial life decision and have their friends weigh in on their dilemma will find Tinder Stacks right up their alley.
Tinder Stacks is no more than a neat little social polling tool and it doesn't have much beyond its sole purpose. However, it can come in handy during fairly benign life situations like deciding on a new tie, or the next novel to read. Simple as it may seem, though, Tinder is clearly moving forward in its initiative to make Tinder a more socially enabled experience as opposed to the one-on-one dynamic that the original Tinder app is limited to.
Tinder recently released Tinder Social, the same swipe left or right affair, but with friends. This week, the company also announced a new feature that integrates Tinder with Spotify, in which users can embed their favorite music in their Tinder profiles, letting their music taste vouch for their added attractiveness.
The roster of product updates by Tinder suggests that it's coming up with new tactics to let everyone in on the swipe left and swipe right shorthand for evaluating things, which is always the case given how fast social media moves.
