Maximizing Your Match Potential on Tinder
Tinder’s Attempt at Perfect Matching
Original Article: https://www.swipehelper.com/2021/07/17/tinder-algorithm/
Why does my friend on Tinder see different people on the app, despite being the same age, live in the same area, and have similar settings? At first glance, one may assume that although discrepancies in the number of matches can exist, the friend and I would be exposed to the same ‘swipe options.’ It turns out Tinder has an algorithm to maximise number of matches and reward ‘healthy’ and ‘consistent’ users of the online dating platform.
When we list ourselves on Tinder, we choose our most attractive photos, write ‘witty’ autobiographies, and outline interests that we think would make us look appealing. It turns out not everything is in our control. Depending on the frequency we are on the app, the ratio of left and right swipes, the number of right swipes on us are analyzed by Tinder to maximize total number of matches between people on the platform. Like most online games, from League of Legends to online chess, Tinder has an Elo rating system, where the platform calculates and ranks the ‘skill level’ of players. For Tinder, that ‘skill level’ of a player is how desired you are by nodes on the other side of the bipartite graph, and the ‘players’ describe Tinder users who are looking for their partner(s). Assume that Tinder’s Elo rating system is based on a scale from 1 to 10. If my Elo rating is a 5 out of 10, I will be exposed to other players whose scores are also within that range (say, 3 to 7). My swiping habits, the number of right swipes on me will affect this rating. Exposing users to other users with a similar score increases chance of matches and decreases the chance of constricted sets (as there are so many Tinder users).
However, there are still cases of constricted sets and hence, imperfect matching, on Tinder. If a user is swiping left or right at too high of a frequency, Tinder may consider you a swiping bot and hide your profile from nodes of the other side of the bipartite graph. I assume although Tinder’s ultimate goal is perfect match, so all users find their perfect match(es), bans are incorporated to ensure a healthy and pleasant experience for the rest of the users. To maximize our match probability, we should not only care about how we look in our photos and the captions that make us look intelligent, but also the frequency at which we swipe left or right.