How Exactly Does the Tinder Algorithm Work?
This question gets floated around quite often. I have never fully addressed it, so I wanted to make this definitive Tinder algorithm guide to answer the question in detail.
If you’re not familiar with what the f*ck I am referring to. The simplified explanation is that Tinder has an “Elo score” for each user that determines the quality and quantity of matches you get.
This has been the source of an extreme amount of speculation in the past few years, with guys trying every possible thing under the sun to tinker with it. While the exact formula is a secret at Tinder (like the exact recipe for Coca Cola), through personal experimentation, listening to user accounts, and research we can know more than enough. Using this info, we can optimize our pictures and bios, to help us get more Tinder matches (and better ones, too!).
Here are the factors that go into determining your Tinder algorithm “Elo score” and what you can do to maximize each one of them:
- Quality of Tinder Profile and Tinder Pictures – How many girls swipe right on you compared to swiping left. It’s simple: the better your profile pics, the more girls will swipe right on you, the better your score will be. And vice versa. This is why I advocate if you want to improve your results on Tinder your first and foremost priority should be getting better Tinder pics.
- How Often You Use Tinder – Tinder admitted this in a recent article and my own results confirm. Using the app often will make your profile a lot more “visible” and not logging on for a while we significantly reduce your visibility (until you start going back on regularly). The underlying logic here is that Tinder wants people to meet and have tinder babies (walking testimonials) and thus rewards behavior that leads to that. I have personally noticed that almost every time I check my tinder, I get an influx in matches in the next hour. Now, don’t feel like you have to go crazy here and constantly be on your phone. Just checking your tinder a few times a day for a few minutes, will allow you more or less to max out your matches
- Who you swipe right on – While much less significant, then the first two this still plays a role. Tinder does take into account both how picky you are (they punish swiping left on every one and swiping right on every one) and the types of girls you swipe right on (Recently tinder confirmed that they have a “typing” system and try to show you more of girls who are your perceived “type”.There is much more that can be said here, but the end advice will still be the same. It’s VERY simple. Just swipe right on girls you find attractive and would be interested in meeting and left on ones who you don’t….That’s it.
- Whether you message the girl – This is by far the smallest factor, but I figured it was still worth mentioning. Tinder does consider whether you actually interact with your matches (remember tinder babies). But as long as you are matching with girls you actually want to meet, then this shouldn’t be an issue.
Two other things worth mentioning:
- Don’t use Auto Swipers – They used to be very useful in the early years of tinder, but now are pointless due to tinder revising their algorithm to place girls who swiped right on you in the front. They can also get you marked as a bot (shadow ban) and damage your score.
- Constant Resets can get you Shadow Banned – There is now sufficient evidence that tinder is cracking down on people who try to “hack” the algorithm through constant resets. Their solution is just to shadow ban your profile. This is why you don’t want to rely on resets to get matches. Personally, I almost never reset my profile. That being said, if you think you’ve swiped through every girl in your city then it can be still worth while to do a “reset”.
