Does Tinder Erase Matches? Or Were you Unmatched?

Does Tinder erase matches? Does it interfere with your dating in any way? These were two questions I was asked the other day when discussing the dating app with friends. I didn’t have the answers which prompted me to find out. Here is what I discovered.

Few apps have influenced our lives as much as Tinder. Unless you’re happily coupled or over 35, you will likely have used and either loved or hated Tinder. Whichever side of the fence you’re on, there is no doubt it has changed the way we view relationships forever. Things don’t always go your way though, just like real dating. The technology may have changed but the human element remains the same.

The questions above were prompted by a discussion about whether Tinder was playing up or whether my buddy had just been dropped by his Tinder match. We of course made much of the latter while conveniently ignoring the possibility of the former.

Does Tinder erase your matches?

So does Tinder erase matches? Until earlier this year the answer would have been an emphatic no. Since April though, the answer has to be modified to no, not on purpose.

It is in Tinder’s interest for you to get matches and to keep them. The more luck you have on the app, the more you use it. The more you use it, the more likely you are to pay for Tinder Plus or Tinder Gold. The more you use the app the more you match, making others feel good and so on. It’s a feedback loop that it is in Tinder’s interest to feed. There would be no reason for them to erase your matches as it could cause you to drop the app in frustration, losing them potential revenue.

Unless it happened accidentally.

On 5 April 2018, Tinder suffered another bout of issues that caused users to lose matches. Users complained that matches disappeared and were not happy about it. In the end, it wasn’t Tinder at all but a privacy change at Facebook that caused Tinder to fail. As Tinder gets its data from Facebook, the change impacted Tinder in a big way. It didn’t go down well.

In the end, it turned out that you could log into the Tinder website and your matches would still be there. Once Tinder and Facebook had sorted out the issue, the matches returned to the app too.

Does Tinder interfere with your dating in any way?

The answer to this question is similar to the first. As far as I know Tinder does not interfere in your dating in any way. It is not in its interest to meddle in your life. It just needs to create an environment where you want to spend time, have successful dates, meet and swipe and spend your money on extra Super Likes or subscriptions.

Tinder does subtle things like influence the order of the cards you see in your stack, provide Boosts to improve your chances of a match and use the usual anticipation and jeopardy tools to release that dopamine high that keeps us addicted, but otherwise does not interfere in how you use the app.

What happens if your match disappears?

If your Tinder match suddenly disappears, what happened? If Tinder doesn’t (that we know of) erase matches or interfere in your dating activity, why did the match disappear? There are three reasons why this might happen.

The Facebook glitch – Your matches might disappear because of another Facebook glitch or a problem with Tinder itself. It might be worth checking your favorite news site or with Tinder themselves to see if there is a technical issue you need to be aware of.

The match deleted their account – As popular as Tinder is, there is such a thing as too much. Lots of people join the dating app but lots of people leave it too. Not everyone has success and not every user has a good time on the platform. If someone deletes their Tinder account, they will disappear as a match.

They unmatched you – Unlikely I know, but it is possible that your match decided against matching up with you. The reasons could be many. They could have met their one true love. They could be going to work with children in Africa without a cell connection. They could have been diagnosed with a terminal condition. Or they could just have changed their mind.

The thing with being unmatched as it isn’t personal. If you haven’t met the person, it cannot be personal as you haven’t even seen them yet. Viewing a couple of images and reading an online profile isn’t meeting in any real sense of the word. So don’t take it personally, pick yourself up and move on. It’s just the way it goes in Tinder.