Source: ARS Technica

Tinder has set plans in motion to add a panic button and an anti-catfishing software to ensure the safety of its users.

According to the police reports of 2018, the rate of sex crimes has doubled with the increasing use of dating apps. In fact, the dating site, Plenty of Fish, which is also owned by Tinder’s parent company (Match Group), was recently under fire after a user was stabbed to death by the person she met on the website.

Match Group is also the owner of dating platforms Ok Cupid, Love Scout 24, Black People Meet and Hinge. The parent company aims to implement the same features in its other websites later this year.

Source: Global Dating Insights 

Tinder’s new features will include a panic button that will immediately report the local authorities. To make this feature effective, Match Group has invested in the security firm, Noonlight. This feature would allow Tinder users to instantly connect to the services of Noonlight in case of an unfortunate event during the Tinder date.

With the services offered by Noonlight, Tinder app users will be able to contact the emergency services instantly by pressing the panic button. This would alert the authorities and send them the user’s exact location, time and date, as well as the information about the person they are meeting. Noonlight would then contact the local authorities on the user’s behalf.

Brittany LeComte, the co-founder of Noonlight, stated, “Noonlight acts as a silent bodyguard in situations when you’re alone or meeting someone for the first time.”

Source: RexWeyler 

This feature would be implemented in the US Tinder applications on January 28th, 2020. However, the date of the global launch for this feature has not yet been revealed.

The dating app has also added a new feature to catch catfishing before it extends to other users. Tinder is planning to launch a human-dependent Artificial Intelligence (AI) system to detect whether the user’s profile picture matches with the other selfies that the app requires users to take. If the pictures match, then the app verifies the user by adding a blue tick on their profile. This will allow other users to see that the person is genuinely who they say they are!

With this cutting-edge feature added, you would no longer have to call Nev and Max to find out whether you are being catfished. 

Another feature added in the application is a “Does this bother you?” prompt, which aims to highlight any offensive messages sent through the app. When the user agrees with the ‘does this bother you?’ they can start an investigation to report the user sending offensive messages.

Tinder is taking the right initiative by adding these features, considering the alarming rates of sex crimes and catfishing through dating apps.

Source: Netflix 

TV series like Netflix’s The Circle and MTV’s Catfish-The TV show, have revealed how easy it is to fake your online presence and convince people about your genuine “connections” over the internet. However, with this catfishing detection software, you wouldn’t have to worry about meeting a creepy old man on your next Tinder date!