The ultimate guide to developing a Tinder clone app

Modern technologies have taken the man-machine relationship to a whole new level. It has played its hand in interpersonal relationships. Long gone are the days where love used to happen at first sight. Only a nucleus of millennials has experience in writing love letters or sending cards to their loved ones. The introduction of Tinder in 2012 has served its purpose of love-matching pretty well. People were fed up with overflowing ads and bugs in various platforms and Tinder found its sweet spot in the market quickly by offering an authentic dating platform. It rocketed social dating to a whole new level in a convincing way.

Apart from the intuitive design and plethora of functional elements, the app became such a huge hit mainly because of its inventive features. People can browse through other profiles by swiping on the screen and the interactive chat options after getting a match added a whole new layer to the user experience. Its stunning features and incredible algorithm helped it to gain a great following overnight. Tinder currently has over 50 million active users every month and its annual revenue has exceeded over $1.2 billion in the previous year. It is currently active in 196 countries.

Tinder has become the go-to mobile application for casual hookups, friendships, and long term relationships. Tinder is the first of its kind application in the market and the number of swipes exceeds over 12 million every day. It has inspired several entrepreneurs across the world. Currently, the dating market is like a swarm of tinder on-demand dating apps. Every app upgraded regularly with new functionalities and features to sustain in the market. If you are planning on developing an app like Tinder, then you will face some common issues like gaining the trust of your customers and attracting the audience. 

How do on-demand dating apps work:

Tinder works on both Android and iOS. It is free to download, however, the users will be asked to pay to get the premium access and exclusive features. It heavily relies on the GPS of our smartphones. If you are building an app like Tinder, then make sure you get the same feature as it is an effective tool to connect people. Tinder also has social media plugins so that the users need not have to enter their phone number or email address for registration.  They can easily login with their Facebook account. The app automatically analyzes the common interests, geographical location of the user to find a potential match. The unique feature of Tinder is its swipe feature. The users can swipe left next profile and swipe right to like the profile. If the other person likes the user, then it is a mutual match and they can start chatting. A specific algorithm takes care of the matching making system. 

Features of the Tinder app and the technologies used in it:

Authorization and user profile:

If you are building a Tinder clone app, then you should use a Facebook authorization engine. Typically, it will be implemented onto the platform by open authorization protocols such as OAuth. There are many kinds of authorization methods in the market, you can discuss with your development team and choose according to the scale of your business and region in which you are planning to deploy your application. After you are done with the authorization, it is time to work on the app’s functionalities and interface.

Push notifications:

    Notifications are very important in Tinder as it informs the users about receiving likes, messages, and super likes. If you are building an on-demand dating app like Tinder, then you should make sure that your development team uses FCM (firebase cloud messaging) for android apps and APS (Apple push notifications) for iOS. Users should be able to alter the notifications they receive on various levels. 

Monetization strategies:

  Tinder has a subscription feature in which users can get more control over the app and get exclusive features. Unlike non-subscribers, they will be able to change their location, rewind the previously left swipe, turn off in-app advertisements, etc. To add in-app features onto the application one must use the Store Kit Framework for iOS apps and In-app Billing API for android applications. 

Simplicity should not be misinterpreted as cheap design:

Tinder can be used by people of ethnicities and races, this is due to the simplicity of the application. Users do not prefer spending a lot of time figuring out how to use the app and will not like it if an app is complex to use. They expect the interface to be interactive and minimalistic. 

Geolocation and communication:

    Geolocation is the basis of dating apps as one cannot find people near them if it wasn’t for GPS. Make sure that your development team makes good use of the Geolocation API and Core Location while building the application. For Android the most commonly used Java package is android.location package and Mapview API and in case of iOS it is CLLocation manger class and Map kit framework.

Cost of developing an app like Tinder:

 Here are the basic sections that will consume time while developing your dating service app. The more hours every part consumes, the higher will be your development cost.

• Web (back end and admin panel)
• Mobile development
• Demo
• Production
• Design
• DevOps and meetings

In a nutshell:

 As you reached the end of the article, you will have gained a complete understanding of the market potential and development of the Tinder clone script. Now is the right time to use this information and get in touch with a professional clone app development team to get your hands on the product.