‘We know you. You live in a world where every moment counts – where speed equals success, you’re always on the go, and you can’t let anything slow you down. Especially your Tinder feed. ’
That is the opening statement by Tinder explaining why they released Tinder Gold. So what is Tinder Gold and how do you use it?
First there was Tinder, then Tinder Plus, then Tinder Select released earlier this year. Now we have Tinder Gold. Each has offered a more ‘elite’ experience, for a cost. While the free Tinder app is still available and still viable, these paid editions are designed to be much more alluring and are marketed at those who want to waste less time and date more people.
Tinder Gold is essentially a new feature and some existing ones boosted up and packaged into something being painted as exclusive or elite. If you buy into the marketing blurb, you’re joining an exclusive club that gets a foot up on the app. So exclusive in fact that anyone can join if they can justify the cost.
Despite the weak packaging, Tinder Gold may actually be very useful.
What is Tinder Gold?
Tinder Gold is a new premium tier of dating that addresses one of the key challenges of the app. How to maintain the gamification while also making it more practical to use.
Tinder Gold gives you unlimited likes, five super-likes per day, the Passport feature, Rewind to undo any mistaken swipes and boost. You also get to hide your age and location if you really want to. There is also probably the neatest new feature called Likes You. It is this final element that may make Tinder Gold worth paying for.
Usually, you only get to see who swiped on you when you swipe on them. For some, this means swiping right on everyone just to see if anyone likes you. While limiting right swipes did a decent job of curtailing this, it still meant those who lived in busy cities has dozens, or hundreds of matches to go through before finding a truly interesting one.
If you use Tinder purely to hook up, this plays into the numbers game. If you are after something more meaningful, it means the diamond often gets lost in the rough.
Like Me addresses that by allowing you to see who has liked you before having to like them back. Even though you get unlimited likes anyway, this feature saves time by not requiring you to swipe to see but also keeps your match grid uncluttered by matches that you only swiped right for out of curiosity.
When you log in, you can see with one tap how many people have liked you and can then scan them and swipe as you see fit. You can check them out without having to swipe which allows you to filter before swiping. You can then ignore, swipe left or right depending on what you like, or not.
Like Me is a time saver. If you have more spare cash than spare time, it could work for you. Rather than having to scan through profiles and swiping, you tap an icon on the Tinder home screen and see right there who has already swiped right on you. This will save a few minutes or more depending on where you live.
Tinder Gold isn’t cheap. If you already have Tinder Plus, it is an extra $4. 99 on top of that, so $82. 99 a year or $14. 99 a month.
Is Tinder Gold worth the money?
Tinder Gold is an extra $5 a month on top of Tinder Plus. Some may notice that extra, some may not. As mentioned above, Tinder Gold is for cash rich and time poor people mainly but anyone who has a busy time on Tinder may benefit from it.
Passport, Rewind, unlimited likes, five super likes a day, one Boost a month and the usual profile controls are available with Tinder Plus. Likes Me is only available with Tinder Gold.
If you live in a big city, tend to swipe right just to see if they have swiped right on you, play the numbers game or just want to feel like a member of an exclusive club, Tinder Gold may be worth the extra money. If you don’t fit into any of those categories, Tinder Gold may not be such a good investment. At the end of the day, only you can decide whether you can justify the extra cost.
Tinder Gold is unlikely to be the last special edition of the dating app and unlikely to be the most expensive forever. The value proposition is personal though, so while I don’t consider it a good investment, other people likely will.
What do you think of Tinder Gold? Worth spending the extra? Tell us about your experiences below!
