Tinder Announces Tinder U Service For College Students

Tinder has announced a new dating service called Tinder U and it’s only available for college students. Users will only be able to log in to Tinder U if they have a .edu email and have set their location on campus.

“Get ready for the best semester of your life. Tinder U is a new feature that makes it easier to connect with other students around you - putting their profiles first as you swipe,” Tinder said in a blog post. “Need a study buddy? Not a problem. Coffee date on the quad? We’ve got you covered. Freshman year and you don’t know a soul? This is your ticket to the coolest crowd on campus. Let’s face it—it doesn’t get any classier than this.”

To start using Tinder U, users must sign up using a .edu email from an accredited four-year nonprofit school in the United States, according to CNET. Users must also be geolocated on the campus when they log in to Tinder U. Once that’s done, users will receive an email to verify their account. When this process is complete, the next time they open Tinder, Tinder U will be the service that will load on their end. Tinder U is currently being rolled out to iOS and there's no word yet on when it will be available for Android devices.

Users of Tinder U should be able to see their school’s logo at the top of the screen. Profiles on Tinder U will have an indication on the bottom left corner to show which school they’re from, as pointed out by TechCrunch. Like the regular Tinder dating service, Tinder U uses the same set of features. Users will still be able to swipe left and right to reject or like other people’s profiles. Super likes, messaging mutual matches and all of the other features found on the regular Tinder app are all available on Tinder U.

Users of Tinder U will also be able to find students from nearby colleges and universities. Students won’t have to find Tinder dates from their own campus. Tinder U is a feature that’s baked right in the regular Tinder app. This also means that users of Tinder U can switch back to using the regular Tinder app if they want to.

Match Group, Inc., Tinder’s parent company, actually announced the new feature a couple of weeks ago on its quarterly earnings call, as pointed out by The Verge. The company also reported at the time that it has 3.8 million paying Tinder users during the second quarter of 2018. The introduction of Tinder U makes a lot of sense considering that a lot of younger users are already using the dating app. Providing a dedicated space for 18-year-olds could also mean that they may become paid users sooner.