Oh Tinder, what was hooking up like before you came around? You changed our dating lives forever, but stubbornly stayed mobile app only, unwilling to commit to other platforms. But now, in your efforts to seduce even more market share, you’ve opened yourself up to whole new world of users.
That’s right folks, now you don’t even need a smartphone to get in on the digital dating scene. Tinder recently launched a version of their uber-popular service that can be used on desktops or any device with a web browser basically, no app required.
In a post announcing “Tinder Online” (wasn’t it online already? Eh, whatever) the company explains its reasoning for the new feature: “Let’s face it: not all places on earth have 4G. Some people can’t get bundled services, while others don’t have enough memory to support Tinder on their mobile phones. For all those who’ve ever been stuck in a lecture hall or had to endure an eight-hour workday without access to Tinder—this is for you.”
So basically, a big part of it is about getting Tinder into the hands of folks who don’t have pricey smartphones and fast mobile connections (because don’t people of all social classes deserve the chance to hook up with internet strangers?).
This can also be seen in the initial slate of countries that the company is beta testing the new platform in, which includes Indonesia, Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Mexico and the Philippines. They’re also testing it in Italy and Sweden, both countries which we assume have high numbers of smartphone users and 4G coverage but perhaps the company thinks the famously libidinous citizens of those lands need omnipresent access to their service.
At any rate, those of you in the can access the Philippines Tinder Online right now (though if you’re at work right now, please don’t, because you might get in trouble, and we’d feel terrible about that). It works basically the same as the app but here’s a tutorial for Tinder newbies.
Text from Coconuts Jakarta with minor edits.
