Tinder is one of the world’s leading dating sites and a great place to both look for that special someone and seek out casual fun. The way the app works is simple: users register a profile with a biography, some pictures, and a few details about themselves such as their age, career, and location. The app then offers each user potential matches in their local area; users swipe right or left to indicate their interest or lack thereof. If two people swipe right, they will be informed about the match and have a chance to chat. It’s a simple system.
However, the system fails when you want to call a specific contact. Maybe you know that a particular interest person in your area is on Tinder and you want to match with him as soon as possible. Unfortunately, Tinder doesn’t provide any way to search for someone on the site… or is it?
In this article, I’ll show you a few ways you can narrow your search parameters to increase your chances of seeing (and being seen by) the profile you’re interested in.
Seeing the Impossible Dream
One thing you need to understand before you start looking is that Tinder makes some matches impossible. The way the system works is that only people who are potentially attracted to each other can see each other’s profile. For example, let’s say person A says that she is looking for someone who is 28 years old and between the ages of 25-30. Person B is 29 years old and is looking for someone between the ages of 30-35. These two people will never match each other or even see each other’s profile. Person A is interested in Person B, but Person B wants someone 30 or older and Person A is very young. Even if one is interested in the other, they will not see each other’s profiles because there is no possibility of mutual interest.
Accordingly, if you yourself do not meet the parameters that your search target enters into the application, there is nothing you can do to find them. Tinder won’t show you to each other until you change its parameters to include people like you.
Edit Your Preferences
Tinder doesn’t allow you to search by interests, type of employment, or keywords. There are only three things you can specify what you’re looking for: gender, location/distance, and age. However, if you’re looking for someone in particular and you already know something about that person, this may be enough to narrow your search considerably. Here’s how.
Normally, when we enter Tinder, we set our parameters quite broadly except for the gender we want. We set our maximum distance for matches to be as large a distance as we are willing to travel for a date, and adjusted our age range to the widest possible range that might interest us. This usually gives us a large pool of potential matches.
These parameters will bring up lots of potential matches.
But we don’t want a very large pool to find our target. We want a pool as small as we can get, while also including the match we want. That way, when we go to review potential matches and start scrolling, we’ll quickly find the target person because they’re just one of a few potential matches.
So there are two pieces of information about the match you want that you really need to know to make this work: their age and their physical location at various times of the day. (i.e. home address, workplace, school etc.) Then you want to match these criteria as precisely as possible. Note that Tinder won’t let you set your age range as a single number; You must give it a gap of at least 5 years to work. You may want to try this number, especially if you think your desired match has slightly changed their age on the site.
(Note that people can lie on Tinder.)
This is much narrower.
- Go to your Tinder “home” by tapping the person icon in the top menu.
- Faucet Settings.
- Adjust your age range and distance accordingly.
- Swipe to start searching.
Note that it’s your *real location* that Tinder uses to find distances. So if you set your distance to be 1 mile to call your next-door neighbor, but he’s actually ten miles away at work, then he won’t show up in your searches. You have to physically travel to be close to the person you are looking for.
Change Your Location (Only with Tinder Gold or Tinder Plus)
Alternatively, if you’re looking for someone in another city (where traveling to visit would be a bit of a hassle) you can change your location if you have Tinder Gold or Tinder Plus. You can just set it to the city you want, so you have to leave your distance field quite large to find your match.
- Faucet Location (iOS) or scrolling (Android).
- Faucet Add a new location.
- Enter new location.
(Want to prevent someone from finding your profile on Tinder based on your location? Check out our tutorial on hiding your location from Tinder.)
Patience Takes You Anywhere
Now that your preferences are set, there is only one thing left to do. Start scrolling until you find the person you are looking for. The more specific your location preferences, the better. Of course, doing this is not for the faint of heart, especially if you live in a highly populated area. But it will give you results… eventually.
Wait, Is Tinder Using Usernames?
If you don’t mind taking the time to scroll through dozens of profiles, consider this approach. When you first sign up for Tinder, it doesn’t ask you to choose a username (and no, we’re not talking about the first name other users see when they quickly rate you). However, you can capture a username and Tinder will apply it to your own profile URL. If you do, people can search for you using this URL. But they need to know your username to guarantee they will find you.
Getting a Username
Wondering how to get your own username?
- Go to your profile settings.
- Scroll down User name under Web Profile.
- Faucet User name.
- then type your username in the field provided tinder.com/@.
- Faucet To approve.
Try typing the tinder.com/@ URL[your username] enter your web browser. You should be facing your own Tinder profile.
User Search
If you know the user’s username, the rest is easy. If you don’t, it’s time to start brainstorming. Of course you can try their real name. However, you may want to try and find them on other more searchable social media sites (like Facebook). What usernames do they use on Twitter or Instagram? Try these.
At the end of the day, though, the best way to get matches on Tinder is to use the service as intended. It starts with creating a great profile and pictures! Your conversational skills are also important.
Do you have any suggestions or tips for finding a specific person on Tinder? If you do, share with us in the comments below!
