Tinder on the desktop: Looking for love in another wrong place

tinder-on-the-desktop-looking-for-love-in-another-wrong-place photo 1 Tinder

Tinder has arrived to the desktop with Tinder Online, finally helping you find love (or sex) on the web without a smartphone or tablet. The dating site describes the web app as "your English professor's worst nightmare," letting you seek partners where your mobile phone normally can't go, like work or a classroom. The company also sees it as a way to attract users from developing nations who lack decent wireless connectivity or "don't have enough memory to support Tinder on their mobile phones."

As with the web app, you'll log into Tinder Online using Facebook, though the company says it's "testing the ability to log in via SMS directly from your mobile phone in various markets." If you haven't done so already on mobile, you then set up your bio and pictures, something that should be easier using a keyboard. From there, you'll swipe or click to find partners, depending on your device.

Tinder Head of Product Brian Norgard told Techcrunch that it wasn't easy creating the new app, given its years of being on smartphones only. "Our DNA is mobile so there was a learning curve involved in building something for a bigger screen," he said. "What makes Tinder great on your phone might not make it great on the desktop, and vice versa."

 

With the arrival of the web app, the company made a few tweaks to its software. In an effort to promote the "dating" over the "conquest" aspect of the app, it now prompts you to "send message" when you make a match rather than "keep swiping!" That said, the desktop app is no doubt an attempt to boost its user base, which it should do significantly.

For now, Tinder Online doesn't support any of the mobile app's money-making features like Tinder Boost or Super Like. In addition, testing is limited to a just seven countries across South America, Asia and Europe: Argentina, Indonesia, Italy, Mexico, Philippines, Brazil, Columbia and Sweden. That's an odd mix of countries, but if you're in one of them, you should be able to try it out here.

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