Year in Swipe 2020: Tinder reveals how India flirted and dated amidst the pandemic

Like most other things — our jobs and our daily activities — the COVID-19 pandemic also disrupted dating across the globe. Online dating, while being stuck inside the four walls of our houses, is definitely not a cakewalk. 

The lack of physical meetings and the uncertainty associated with going back to ‘normal’ seem to turn everyone hopeless, especially when it comes to romance and love. 

“I turned to online dating when PubG was banned and I needed to talk to someone outside my usual social circle to break the monotony,” says Sidhantha Jain, an Artist Manager. “However, conversations with every match hit a dead end,” he adds. 

But, much as the plot twist of a year that 2020 has been like, Tinder users did not give up. Online dating enthusiasts adapted and got creative when it came to connecting with their matches. 

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According to Match Group’s (Tinder’s parent company) Q3 earnings, messages and the use of the swipe feature on Tinder have doubled since the end of February. 

In a statement, Tinder revealed that the country’s youth used the online dating platform to chat, meet, hang out, and even swap creative date hacks and shrugs. And all this, while staying socially and physically distant. Tinder users defined their own dating rules amidst the pandemic. 

With data aggregated from app activity and from user profiles, these were the top 10 trends on Tinder in 2020: 

Pandemic-led pick-up lines

Tinder users got innovative when it came to their bios. Phrases like ‘quarantine and chill’ took off in March, when the country went into nationwide lockdown. Some users went out of their ways to get creative with their pick-up lines. Top pick-up lines were ‘Let’s be like covid and catch each other’ and ‘Wash your hands so you can hold mine’. 

Mask: A dating essential 

With face masks becoming an essential of 2020, many dating-enthusiasts were ‘Down to mask up and meet up’. Tinder revealed that the mention of ‘mask’ went up by almost 2.5X by April 2020. The use of the masked emoticon was up by 5X by April 2020 from the beginning of the pandemic. 

Most used emojis 

GenZ speaks more in emoticons than in words. And they are no different when it comes to online dating. Here are the most used emojis on Tinder:

Dating anthem: WAP 

Cardi B’s song WAP topped Tinder’s 10 dating anthem list. In a statement, the dating platform said that WAP inspired many to put themselves out there and share their own dance moves. 

Supporting social causes

Last year, ‘environment’ was the top trending word in Tinder bios.  The pandemic did not put a damper on the Tinder community’s support for the environment and climate change. The mention of ‘climate change’ doubled this year from the last.

Tinder suggests that this signals its members taking shared values seriously while matching. 

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Shared experiences

Tinder has gone from finding love in a hopeless place to finding hope in shared experiences. For the first time, everyone across the globe went through similar experiences at the same time and found solace in shared activities.

This reflected as users picked up global quarantine trends such as Dalgona coffee, Curtis Roach’s ‘Bored in the house’, and baking banana bread. 

Prateek Kuhad did his magic again 

In 2019, Indians hummed to Indie artist Prateek Kuhad’s 'Cold/Mess'. This time, the country collectively reminisced while watching his music video, ‘Kasoor’. Members were found including the song in their bios. 

Gamers unite 

Tinder saw a significant increase in mention of OP (Overpowered, term used by gamers to signify they have overpowered their enemies with ease) in bios (3X from 2019). The mention of Ludo was also significantly high. 

Vocal for local 

Tinder users also promoted local businesses. ‘Baba ka Dhaba’ made its 2020 debut on social media and on several Tinder bios. 

Solving the meme mystery 

Tinder users used the ‘Rasode Main Kaun Tha 2020’ on their memes. A Tinder user even went on to take full accountability for what she did with the cooker, here.