Tinder's new social feature tells you exactly which Facebook friends are swiping

Tinder is testing a new social feature on its app that lets users avoid one-on-one dates, and instead look to score at a group outing.

The company called it “Tinder Social” in a blog post, and it looks almost completely new. The idea behind the new add-on is that, instead of looking for a date, you can plan a group outing with your friends while also trying to meet new people. How it works is that you can create a group of your friends on Tinder, and then use the group to discuss what the plan is.

In addition, you can update a status for the group about where you’re going to be partying and, instead of swiping between individuals, you swipe between other groups. When there’s a match, either because you know one of the people in that group, or their going to the same venue, you can chat with those members and break the ice well in advance of meeting them in person. 

It’s an interesting idea to say the least. You could use the feature to hang out with an entirely new bunch of people, or even merge two sets of your friends. But the other thing to note is that Tinder Social will tell you exactly which of your friends use the app. Tinder uses Facebook verification when you try to join the app, but most of your details are hidden from other users. And that privacy is important, as not everyone is comfortable with other people knowing they’re dating online.

But users in Australia, on whom the new feature is being tested out, have been a little frustrated by Tinder Social. You see, to make those groups among your friends, Tinder has to present you with options from your friends. That means, it’s pulling up a list from your Facebook friends circle, and allowing you to add anyone on there that’s using Tinder. And now your love life is not so much a secret anymore. Even stranger, Tinder has enabled the feature for those users by default, instead of offering an opt-in.

Update: Tinder got in touch with us to assure us the feature is going to be an opt-in. Once the update hits, you'll receive a notification when you first open the app, telling you about Tinder Social. At that point, you can go into your settings and disable it, if you'd like your online dating habits to remain private. However, take note that if you skip the notification without paying it any attention, it WILL enable the feature until you get around to disabling it manually.

Of course, a lot of people weren’t happy, and Tinder began receiving complaints. At which point, the company updated the post with this choice bit of passive-aggressive statistics: “We are only testing it at this point, but it's important to note Tinder's not a secret considering 70% of users download Tinder because their friends recommend it.” Is that true? Probably. Should that have been the response? Probably not.