Tinder Now Requires You To Verify With A Selfie

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Dating app titan Tinder is rolling out a major security upgrade, mandating that new U.S. users verify their identity with a short video selfie through its Face Check feature. Announced Wednesday, this expansion aims to curb impersonation and weed out bots and fake accounts that have plagued the platform. It’s a bold move for a company grappling with user safety concerns and a shrinking paying base—down 7% in Q2 2025—amid a wave of departures over privacy and bad experiences.

The Face Check system works by creating a 3D video scan of a user’s face, cross-checking it against their profile pics for authenticity. Pass the test, and you snag a shiny verification badge on your profile—a green light to other daters that you’re the real deal. The tech also flags if the same face pops up across multiple accounts, adding a layer of defense against fraudsters. Tinder insists video selfies get deleted post-review, though it retains an “non-reversible, encrypted face map and face vector” to verify new photos, detect scams, and block duplicate profiles. Privacy wonks might raise an eyebrow, but the company frames it as a necessary trade-off.

This isn’t Tinder’s first rodeo with Face Check. It’s been live in California since June, plus Colombia, Canada, Australia, India, and parts of Southeast Asia. Now, it’s set to sweep across more U.S. states in the coming months, with plans to hit other Match Group apps—like Hinge and OkCupid—in 2026. Early results are promising: Tinder reports a 60% drop in exposure to potential “bad actors” and a 40% decline in related reports since the feature’s debut. That’s music to the ears of users tired of catfishing and creepers.

Tinder’s not alone in this fight. Meta’s been using similar facial-recognition tech to help users reclaim hacked Facebook or Instagram accounts, while Bumble’s photo verification asks for a pose-matching selfie. The trend signals a broader industry pivot to combat scams as dating apps lean harder into trust-building features. For Tinder, it’s a critical lifeline—retaining users and revenue hinges on proving the platform’s a safer space.

For Tinder, this is more than a feature drop—it’s a survival tactic. With users voting with their feet and revenue slipping, Face Check could be the key to rebuilding trust. Whether it’s enough to reverse the exodus remains to be seen, but one thing’s clear: the dating game just got a lot more real.

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