Using Tinder’s Web Profile to Help Other Vegans Find you on Tinder
We have all been there: swiping left over and over again, peering into profile pictures for some sign of vegan tendencies, getting into chats where we wonder about how and when to drop the V-word, and hoping it is enough when a match tells us they are open minded about veganism. However much we would like Tinder to reach into our Facebook groups, likes, and friends lists to work out we are vegan and then show us vegans first, it seems that for now it just won’t do that. All that being said, perhaps things are not hopeless thanks to a Tinder feature introduced in 2016 which you may not have noticed and which lets us give it some help.
That feature is the Tinder Web Profile. This lets you choose a Tinder username and uses that to make a unique link on the web which takes anyone who clicks on it to your profile in the app. The link looks like this (http://tinder.com/@sentientbeing) and if clicked on a laptop or a device without the Tinder app installed it takes the viewer to a simple page like the one shown below with just your main photo.
This sounds great, right? If Tinder won’t show my profile to other vegans, all I need to do is think of ways to put this link in front of them. It is good if all you care about is other vegans finding you, and it should work, but there is a decision you have to make: do you break the illusion of anonymity that comes with swiping in the app and share the link in ways that allows others to find you outside Tinder? After all, some random stranger might decide they’d rather message you on Facebook and know you will see their message than risk a right-swipe that is never reciprocated.
On the other hand, if you try to avoid it being trivial for people to find you outside the app when you share the link, you reduce your chances for getting it in front of others. I was wondering how real the anonymity in Tinder is and in my testing, a screenshot, name, university and/or job was enough to find the few people I attempted to locate outside Tinder. So maybe it is best to give up on a protection that was never actually there.
What could you do with this link? Well there are a few public things you could do. If you are brave, try setting your Instagram and Twitter profile links to it. Add it to your Facebook bio or replace your intro with it. If you would like a more controlled option, how about asking your friends to pass it on to their vegan friends? Post it in vegan WhatsApp groups and ask that circle of friends to pass it on. Here on Facebook, add it to posts you make in vegan singles/dating groups. If you get chatting with someone on Tinder and realise it isn’t going to work out, you could part with a message giving the link and asking the other person to send it on to their vegan and veggie friends. Those ideas should get you started, and if you have more, please share them in a comment.
If you want to give it a try, go ahead and find the Web Profile in your Tinder settings now. Don’t forget to let me know if you get a date this way. Let’s not allow Tinder to stop us from finding each other :-). If you still want some help turning it on, I take you through the feature on an Android smartphone over on the Facebook page.
The Author
Just another vegan trying to make a connection despite Tinder’s best efforts, the author can be found at: http://tinder.com/@sentientbeing
