Tinder Rolls Out Revolutionary New Safety Feature In India, Allowing Women To Message First; No Word Yet From Bumble
Hindustan Times- Tinder on Tuesday launched a new opt-in setting called “My Move” that allows women the choice to exclusively send the first message to their matches. The feature is currently available in India.
Tinder has been testing the function in India for several months and plans to spread it worldwide if the full rollout proves successful. Rival dating-app Bumble already only allows the female party to a heterosexual match to start conversations.
Taru Kapoor, General Manager for Tinder owner Match Group in India, told Reuters the function had been pioneered in India because of Tinder’s need to attract more women to the app by making them feel more comfortable and secure.
Way to go, Tinder. What a revolutionary concept. I would call it sick that, until this development, the Tinder women of India had to endure the overtures of men with whom they had MATCHED without consent. Seriously, what? Was that a problem? That women were swiping right on guys they liked and matching with them, only to receive a message (or fifty) against their will? Here’s a quick fix: don’t swipe left. If you don’t want the app to do exactly what it was designed to do, don’t use the app that way.
Imagine if you were a baker in New Delhi. You see a line of guys outside your bakery and you open the door and say “come on in, I’ve got pies!” Then the guys come in and say “I’m very interested in your pies,” but this offends/overwhelms you because you weren’t expecting them to tell you they wanted to try your pies. Even though you run a bakery. That bakes pies. And you advertise those pies with pictures.
More importantly, I’m calling on any lawyers reading this. You guys did a great job explaining how Sacha Baron Cohen is able to get away with duping people on his show. So once again, I’m going to need a legal explanation. HOW does Bumble not sue the pants off Tinder for doing this? That’s their entire business model! When Instagram added the story feature, the biggest unique feature that Snapchat had, we saw Snapchat’s stock fall off a goddamn cliff. I never researched how Instagram was able to not only incorporate the exact same idea into their own app, but to CALL it the same thing too. I just assumed the legal wizards had it covered. But whenever these companies make something new, they must be protected by mountains of patents. Right? Please weigh in, lawyers.