How to Make a Tinder Like App - A Complete Development Guide

Covid-19 has changed a lot across almost all aspects of society but still, in spite of the virus prohibiting mask-free breathing, people are strongly rooting for that ‘love’ in the air. Virtual marriages are clear examples of that, and the number of online dating app users reportedly reaching 44.2 million users in 2020, makes it even clearer. Why not make the most of such a striking opportunity that a Tinder like app brings, with a close-knit community with the same objective - right?

With the global pandemic causing stay-at-home orders to roll in & out frequently, it has not just become a condition but also a convenience to know someone online. Moreover, with dating apps like Tinder, it’s easier for people to know about each other & explore compatibility, while being in their own comfort zone - all just by swiping it right! 

..Given that, with such on & upwards popularity of dating apps, it isn’t hard to guess that there's a bright future awaiting businesses built around tinder like apps. Without further ado, let’s look at the clear picture of building a Tinder like app - up and real close!

 

Plan Your Dating App Development !

 

 

 

What Is Tinder?

Tinder is a dating app which provides a simple & convenient platform to meet people online. The world has moved past the days of hand written letters & Facebook friendships long back. With dating apps like Tinder accelerating the digital dating evolution, ‘love at first swipe’ is becoming the new normal.

Though the use of dating apps was prevalent before the COVID-19 era, the use has clearly gone up after the Covid- 19 outbreak for the most obvious reason, “convenience”, among a pool of others. Thus, carrying forward the 20’s legacy - apps, chats, and dating websites have only climbed up the popularity quotient in 2021.

 

How To Make Your Dating App Stand Out?

It’s a no-brainer that in the case of Tinder like app development the two basic facts are..

[i] Creating a clone of a dating app that already exists isn’t of much use unless it provides a major cost-optimization (which isn’t as easy as it may sound in today’s competitive market scenario)

AND

[ii] Your idea of a Tinder like app is likely to get buried as a pitch if it lacks the X-factor convincing investors of its market worth.

Considering the above points, implementing features that translate into easy-to-use & effective UX is all you need to make your Tinder like app make a mark among the existing ones. Saving you from extensive research with our carefully curated list of advanced features that your competitors haven’t aced yet!

Here's a generic guide to hire app developers that you may not want to miss!

 

[1] Video Call 

Video calling isn’t a common feature among the recent dating apps yet . Remember the Orkut days when the DP made you mistake that chat buddy for a Kate Winslet look-alike and that much awaited face-to-face meet shattered the mistake (and the teenage dreams!) into pieces,  as it turned out that the DP was utterly misleading? Well, even today, as shallow as it may sound, appearance has a lot to do with romantic interest for many. So, why not keep the users glued to your app enabling a video call option within the chat window? While it can help your users enjoy the interactions with a more real essence, it can also prevent them from shifting to WhatsApp or Skype after a few rounds of Hi-Hellos on your platform. 

 

[2] Read Recipients  

Is she yet to read this text or she already has, but lost all interest in replying? This is the most common  dilemma dating app users  find themselves in, when their potential partners don’t text back after an usual interval & it has been observed that after a period of time either they disconnect or shift to some other apps such as Instagram or Whatsapp. That’s the origin of this “has seen or hasn’t” confusion. If the ‘read recipient’ feature is incorporated in the chat space of the tinder like app, it can improve the apps’ active usage and retention beyond the swiping & intro phase.

 

[3] Passport To Swipe Around The World

Getting matches in a location even before reaching there physically! How cool is that? This feature enables users to get to know like-minded matches even before reaching that place. Let the users add up to ‘n’ different locations. The more locations you enable, the higher goes your app’s demand.

 

[4] Unlimited Rewind

Swipes done in a hurry often mean swipes done wrong. Let your users undo such mistakenly done swipes. With a rewind button your users can get back to the wrongly swiped profiles unlimited time and ‘right’ cautiously.

 

[5] Smart Photos

Think of incorporating machine learning (ML) algorithms, so that your app can arrange pictures in a way that the first picture is the best of all which increases the appeal for a greater number of swipes. Guess what, users have reportedly found a visible increase in matches with this feature.

 

[6] Offline Access

Don’t let internet connectivity create a ‘barrier’ in your users’ dating journey. How? Simple..just by allowing offline access. When you let your dating app like tinder allow its users to use the app even without internet access, you automatically become their only choice when the internet goes down.

 

[7] Likes You

Letting your users know who likes them in advance even before swiping will increase engagement while adding convenience to the users. How? By letting the users see the ‘likes’ they got & know the status of their ‘like backs’.

 

[8] Hot Takes

It is an in-app game feature that allows users to chat with the person who has similar choices without showing the person's profile. Generally this particular feature isn’t an all day long one and is only active for a certain specified period. During this time span the user can chat with the fellow like-minded user and check out their profiles - ‘speed date’ is what the gen-on-the-go calls it.

 

[9] Fun Quizzes  

How to start a conversation? 

How to maintain the chat? 

How “not” to be a buzzkill? 

These are some of the common questions that your target users using apps like tinder often have in their minds. So why not give them a unique quiz feature having sets of ‘never have I ever’ & ‘this or that’ games, making the entire conversation a lot more fun & engaging where your

users can carry on long conversations without the common awkward pauses!

 

[10] Venue For The First Date 

Deciding a decent venue for the first date is yet another difficult task. 

What if he hates Italian and she chooses a pizzeria for THE first meet? 

What if she is clueless about Marvel movies and he ends up booking couple tickets for Avengers: Endgame marking ‘The End’ of their I-To-We possibility? All at ease with the tinder like app harnessing the like/dislike algorithm  to suggest suitable places to the two & make the entire dating experience equally enjoyable for both.

 

 

 

Features Of A Tinder Like App

 

[1] User Profile & Sign In 

Even though user log-In looks like the basic step and is an inevitable feature in your dating app - you can add value here as well. Signing up through google accounts or contact number is common today and definitely a must but enabling them to login using one of their most used social media apps hit both the bull’s eyes at one go by, 

1. Making the traditional login process more convenient than ever for them AND
2. Providing you with a set of information straight from that app they have poured their heart into - without desperately asking from them 

Also, there’s no dearth of fake profiles putting trust factor in Tinder like apps at stake. So, adding a social media profile also makes your app score significantly more on the user authenticity factor. 

 

Read more : 7 Hot Ideas for Location Based Apps

 

[2] Geolocation 

Geolocation plays a significant role in dating apps like tinder , as matches fetched from around are loved by most of the members since the virtual-to-real meet becomes a lot easier with nearby folks.  Incorporating geolocation API and core location identification plus integration with the ‘Match Finding’ algorithm during Tinder like app development works wonders in spiking user’s interest in your app.

 

[3] Communication 

It’s just impossible for apps like Tinder to exist without chat features. Because right after swiping, users are curious about the other person and want to know every little detail about their turn on and off factors like does the other person think there’s nothing called “too much cheese and chocolates” too? Does he/she sleep with lights on? And whatnot!

Because if your “to-be” partner won't let you have a peaceful sleep, you’re in for a lot of troubles in the time to come (definitely not speaking from experience here). :”). Take these sleep deprivation statistics as an eye-opener (Pun intended). Which is why establishing a clear communication channel on your application from the very inception of your users knowing each other is something you should religiously consider while building a dating app.

Messaging forms the basis of communication, to know about the other person & thus,  ineffective chat features can make the app’s usage inconsistent and lead to a user outflow as they switch over to other functional messaging apps. So for dating apps like tinder introducing chat features isn’t enough but belting out some advanced chatting features to deliver a better chatting experience is equally important.

 

[4] Match Making 

Because not all matches are made in heaven!

‘Swiping’ lets people approve/ disapprove prospective matches based on preferences. While swiping right makes a match, swiping left means saying “no” to a particular suggestion. Users do this based on pictures or how the person has described himself/ herself. It is the first level of interaction which indicates the person is interested to know more about the other person. Considering the user’s previous selections and recommending more similar matches is a great way to win hearts with precision!

 

[5] Notifications 

Giving users engaging notifications about their new matches, receiving messages, likes and super likes will let them spend more time on the app as long as they can conveniently enable or disable notifications of their choice. 

 

[6] App Settings 

Most people are OK with the default settings but a  tinder like app giving a chance to customize settings for all the above mentioned features like notification muting, filters customization & visibility modes become an obvious choice over those apps that don’t allow custom settings.

 

[7] Calendar Integration

With the calendar integration feature you can ‘manage’ the dates that matter much more conveniently. Here by ‘manage’ I mean calendar integration keeping all the info regarding your chats, right swipes of all time and a clear picture of the dating pipeline and other relevant fields alike. The date is confirmed on your calendar only after you plan to meet post-chatting along with mutually positive feedback.

 

[8] Personal Security

The purpose of personal security is to protect the LGBTQ+ users, who visit different countries frequently. So the profiles of users identified under this group will not appear in the places where such relationships are not acceptable. This feature uses the phone’s network connection to determine the user’s location.

 

[9]  Advanced Search Functionality

The common factor among the dating app users is that they are all looking for the ‘perfect’ date, however, the definition of ‘perfection’ differs from one user to another. But to be successfully rising up the popularity meter you really have to ensure that you meet each of their criteria individually to pull them across their perfectly date worthy matches. This nut is easy to crack - all you need is well developed age, sex, distance and maybe interest-based filters. What to keep in the free version and what to make paid is totally your call though!

 

[10]  Top Pics

Following a normal queue can be boring! Top pics allow users to get a selection of profiles through the tinder algorithm. Here they can see some keywords related to a person's character traits like - dancer, gym enthusiast etc.

 

 

Steps To Create A Tinder Like App

 

Step 1 : Churn Out An Idea 

Idea, the foundation of an app, is what a lot of the app’s future popularity & performance depends upon. While your idea may sound like a pathbreaking one to you, chances are, without a research over how it solves your target audience’s pain points in the match finding context or does a thing that adds up to their entertainment factor - it can turn out as a complete flop! So, the first step for building apps like Tinder is to have a clear vision of the exact purpose and aligning the idea with that to provide an optimum experience and efficient performance. 

 

Step 2 : Research & Finalise The Features 

This is one of the most creative steps in the process of creating your app. You can decide all the core features by  conducting a thorough research on how the competing apps work and closely study their drawbacks & USPs. This would ensure your app imparts effective user experience especially in places where the users found flaws in the other apps. A detailed research will also help you with analyzing target users & effective monetization methods.

 

Step 3 : Design Of The App

After deciding the objectives & features of your app, it’s now time to execute the idea into a market-ready app. The design would be one of the most important factors to enhance your users’ overall experience - because, in this colorful sphere of finding a match - mostly, looks matter. So you can start by creating a skeleton by designing wireframes online or offline followed by wireframe testing and move over to the next step. 

 

Step 4 : Choose The Right Development Team 

Once you start your search for a dating app development team, the number of self-proclaimed teams coming up is overwhelming. However,  if you end up partnering with an app development company that doesn’t have relevant knowledge & experience in the same field, you kill the possibility right at the seed phase. That speaks a lot about why it’s important to choose the right app development team ( which should not be difficult with our guide kept handy! ). Want to build your Tinder like app with the world’s top 50 companies’ development partner?

BINARYFOLKS IS EXCITED TO HEAR YOUR IDEA!  

 

Step 5 : Develop Your App

When you have the features & the right development team with you, there’s not much you have to work on during this phase. The development team takes care of the process, while you need to just stay in consistent touch to provide feedback & suggest necessary changes if required.

 

 Step 6 : Test & Fix Bugs 

Development is never complete without hardy testing. Thus, it’s extremely important to test the tinder like app to fix any sort of bugs on both the parties (both internally and externally) so you leave none for the user to complain for.

 

Step 7 : Launch Your App 

After development & testing, it’s time for you to launch it & let the app of your dreams make a mark in the dating app market. Development quality is on us. The rest is upto your marketing skills.
 

How To Make Money Through A Tinder like App?

Dating app development demands a mammoth investment of time, money and definitely, enormous efforts. So chances are there that you are not making this investment without planning the financial future of your app! So, digging for opportunities to monetize your dating app should be done simultaneously as your development phase starts off. Here’s how the best  apps like Tinder are earning well : 

 

[1] Subscriptions

They say money can’t buy happiness but it can buy extra features for a delightful date & hence, more users! Dating apps like Tinder have different types of subscription plans based on price & features where you can earn profits through interesting & innovative features which are more in demand & your target users can only have access to it after subscribing to it.

 

[2] Advertisements 

Many brands target dating audiences for their products & services & prefer to promote their products on these dating platforms. So these advertisements become a great source of income for your dating app business.

 

[3] In App Purchases 

Dating app users prefer more engaging conversations and hence explore a wide range of emojis & stickers to keep it going. That's where you get a chance to earn more through integration of additional emojis, stickers etc.

 

[4] Gifts & Recommendations

Allowing the users to buy gifts & similar stuff from the app itself will create more opportunities for earning profits & you can achieve this by integrating with some online sellers or by creating your own online store while also recommending gifts based on the likes/dislikes data collected by the app.

 

How Much Does It cost To Make A Tinder Like App? 

Assuming you have already had a look at our detailed app development cost guide..

Practically, it would be vague to put a flat rate over the concept of ‘dating app development’ as the total cost of building a tinder like app majorly depends on the following factors :

What all features you want in your app

What type of app you want it to be

The complexity of business logic you choose to implement 

The time for development

As the above factors vary greatly for every idea of a dating app the price differs accordingly too. For instance - suppose developing a dating app takes 2 months with 2 developers working on it. Now if you want to get the app developed in a month’s time - it will require double the developers’ time and quite obviously, the price will go up too. 

However, the cost to develop a tinder like app roughly falls between the range of $8000 to $40000. 

Do you have an idea for your dating app in mind, with maybe the primary features?

Our App Cost Calculator is a great way to get a better estimation!

Wish to know a more streamlined estimate?

 

Contact Us !!

 

Scope Of Tinder Like App In Future

Dating apps like Tinder have come a long way from where they started from - from being just another option to casually know & interact with potent dates to being so popular that the community is expected to touch a whopping 489.9M heads by 2025 . 

Think of..

1. How these apps make exploring a whole community of people easier than ever 
2. How the Covid scene has restricted outdoor movements and made WFH the new normal

And voila! There you see the future of dating apps - nice and bright.

The traditional dating structure has already undergone a fairly striking makeover with  location to images, videos to skills’ sharing and still, the best is yet to come!

The day is not far when ‘dating apps’ will be the answer from every second married couple to the ‘How I met your mother’ question!  

 

 

 

Why Does Developing Your Tinder Like App With BinaryFolks Make For A Wise Choice?

 

Conclusion

Too much info to digest at once? Not with a summary for conclusion! Here you go :

1. The secret sauce to succeed with a Tinder like app is in three things - the creativity you put in, to the extent you make the features convenient, and the quality of the app i.e. how well it’s developed. 
2. Don’t drift off your objectives once you start creating your app. A good research before starting off will be a good starting point, ensuring you start with a comprehensive list of features. 
3. Testing your dating app is an absolute must both pre and post launch
4. Competitors’ app research is an important part as it will help you pick the striking surprise elements for your users
5. Strengthen the security to the fullest - let them share all that they wish to but let them know their information is kept safe!

With the growing popularity of dating apps, the future growth looks inevitable in this space. All you need is customization & better marketing strategies because without clearly defined yours will be just one of those other dating apps. To be “super like”-ed by the users, you have to match their expectations (if not exceed so) !

….Oh hey! Your Tinder like app development requirements and our experience & expertise - it’s a match!

 

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