Tinder gets a free AI upgrade to make you look more attractive

Tinder has launched a new AI-powered photo selector to help boost your chances of finding a match. It's currently US-only but will soon roll out globally.

If you've ever used a dating app you'll know that one of the most difficult things is finding the right pictures: dating apps are a visual experience and that means your pictures are what'll make most people decide which direction to swipe. A new AI feature from Tinder promises to help you with that.

Tinder has launched a new in-app feature called Photo Selector, and it's rolling out now in the US before coming to users worldwide shortly afterwards. It's partly in response to a survey that found 52% of people find it hard to pick profile pictures and that 68% would find an AI picture picker "helpful": according to Tinder's research, singles aged 18-24 will spend an average of 33 minutes trying to find the right profile photo for their dating app.

Enter AI. The goal here is to help you do more with what you've got: the better and more varied the photos you use, the more chance you have of a match.

What does Tinder's AI do?

This isn't a generative AI feature: Tinder isn't going to use AI to create a photo of you based on prompts, or use AI-based touch-up tools to make you look different. And thankfully it won't give you cat ears, cover you with sparkles or do any of the other filtering things that make some people's profile pictures unrecognisable.

According to Tinder, the process goes like this: snap a selfie so the app can see what you look like, give it access to your Camera Roll or Photos Library, and the AI will then collect some pictures it thinks show your best side. You can then decide which of those photos you'd like to use; you can reject the whole lot if you don't feel the selection is suitably smouldering.

The AI is clever, but it can only do so much – and AI or not, Tinder has some recommendations for taking successful profile pics. Not playing Where's Waldo is one of them: Tinder suggests that the odd group photo is fine, but prospective dates shouldn't have to try and guess who you are from multiple group pics. Natural light is generally better than artificial unless you're in a photo studio, and Tinder also recommends making your photos "a mini-story about your fabulous life".