Tinder aims to capture younger daters with return of ‘Double Dating’, in-person experiences

WEB DESK: Tinder is bringing a double-dating feature back to the US, revamping a controversial product it shelved in 2017 over privacy concerns and ambiguity about whether the option was meant for monogamous people.

Double Date, as it’s called, lets users invite friends over text to match with other pairs of friends on the app. Tinder, the largest brand in Match Group Inc.’s dating empire, has been testing it with select users in Belgium, the Nordics, Spain and Germany, where it says double dating s already part of the culture. It plans to expand the rollout globally by July.

The feature is “built to reflect how people actually date today, which is side by side with their friends,” said Cleo Long, senior director of global product marketing. A user who has opted into this mode will have a separate double-dating profile tied to the friend they wish to swipe with, while their solo profile will be kept intact and not merged, Long said. Users can invite as many as three friends to go on double dates with them.

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Double dating is a key feature that Tinder has planned to introduce this year as part of its ongoing efforts to return the brand to growth. The number of paying users has declined from a peak of more than 11 million in late 2022, contracting over the past eight quarters to about 9.1 million. The declines have attracted three activist investors, including Eliott Investment Management LP, who are united in pushing for growth and product innovation.

Younger dates in particular have shown an interest in meeting people through friends and in-person events. It’s a trend that rival Bumble Inc. is also leaning into as it plans a revamp of its BFF app for finding friends, due to launch this summer.

Tinder is hoping to avoid some of the mistakes it made when it first experimented with the concept of group dating in 2016. Back then, it launched Tinder Social with the similar rationale of letting users meet new people alongside friends, but the feature was discontinued in 2017 following backlash from users who were put off by the fact that the product automatically connected their dating profiles to their Facebook friends list.

There was also confusion about whether the group dating feature was intended for people in non-monogamous relationships.

Tinder has been learning from its recent pilot in Europe to better tailor its marketing messaging, with most testers using the feature as intended. Long said in an interview. She acknowledged that while there are non-monogamous users on its platform who could use Double Date for their purposes, it is “not what it has been built for.”

Match, which also owns apps like Hinge, OKCupid and Match.com has found some early success trying out Double Date among Tinder users in Europe, prompting it to move up the feature’s US release.

Nearly 15 percent of those who accepted a Double Date invite from friends were “either new to Tinder or recently reactivated,” according to the company, adding that it also saw higher retention among double dating users, especially at the two-or-three week marks.