Tinder is betting on AI to rescue itself from a crisis of its own making. The Match Group-owned dating app just revealed its new Chemistry feature uses artificial intelligence to analyze your Camera Roll and quiz responses to serve up targeted matches - potentially ending the endless swipe cycle that's driving users away. With monthly active users down 9% and new sign-ups falling 5% year-over-year, the company's scrambling to fix what CEO Spencer Rascoff calls "swipe fatigue" before the entire dating app model collapses under its own repetitive weight.
Tinder just admitted what everyone already knew - the swipe is dying. The dating app that literally invented the left-swipe-right-swipe mechanic is now testing ways to kill it, replacing mindless profile scrolling with AI-powered matchmaking that promises to actually understand what you want.
The company's new Chemistry feature, currently being tested in Australia, lets users answer questions and grants the app permission to scan their Camera Roll to build a personality profile. Instead of swiping through dozens of profiles hoping for a match, users get "just a single drop or two" of highly targeted recommendations, Match Group CEO Spencer Rascoff explained during the company's Q4 earnings call this week.
"Chemistry offers users an AI way to interact with Tinder," Rascoff told analysts from Morgan Stanley who pressed him for updates on the feature first introduced last quarter. The CEO was careful to note the company plans to expand AI functionality beyond just Q&A and photo analysis, though he didn't specify what's coming next.
The timing isn't coincidental. Tinder's user metrics are in freefall, and the company knows it. Monthly active users dropped 9% year-over-year in Q4, while new registrations fell 5% - numbers that show slight improvement from prior quarters but still paint a picture of a platform hemorrhaging its base. The culprit, according to Match executives, is "swipe fatigue" - users burning out from endlessly scrolling through profiles with little to show for it.
