Good morning, and thank you all for being with us here at the El Rey today. This place has quite the history. This stage I'm standing on started as a single-screen movie theater back in the 1930s. In the 1980s and 1990s, it reinvented itself as a club. Today, it's one of L.A.'s most iconic music venues, hosting some of the greatest acts of all time. No pressure. For nearly a century, it's been a place where people come together, and it's evolved to do that in different ways for different generations. At its core, the El Rey has been a venue that helped people create connections and share the things that they love with other people. Tinder plays that same role. We introduced our swipe feature and revolutionized how people connect online forever.
In Tinder's 14 years of innovation, we've never hosted an event to talk about how we've stayed at the forefront of our industry for so long and what comes next. Today is that day. Just over a year ago, I joined Match Group as CEO, and very quickly I made the decision to also run Tinder directly because Tinder matters. It's the largest dating app in the world. It's available in more than 185 countries. Tens of millions of people come to Tinder every day to meet someone new. Our users make around 2 billion swipes per day. For millions of people, Tinder is the first app they choose to use when they start dating. Over the past year, though, there's been a lot of noise around dating apps. Headlines about fatigue and Gen Z opting out.
Let me be clear, the need for human connection is stronger than ever. We are in the midst of a loneliness epidemic. People are craving connection, real connection, more than at any time in recent memory. At a time when we're constantly interacting with machines and technology and with artificial intelligence, Tinder believes that humans need humans now more than ever. We need each other for happiness, for health, for belonging, for someone to laugh with. Connection has also mattered for every generation. My parents were married for 50 years. My wife and I have been together for more than 30. My brother and sister both met their significant others on a Match Group app. Connection is not some trend, it's a primal human need. People just need a better way to spark that connection, and that's why we're here today.
You know, the truth is that I've been looking forward to today for months because on our Match Group earnings calls, we talk about business results and financial results and other metrics, but it's very rare for us to get an opportunity to show off what we've built and how we use consumer insights to create innovative features and to show how those changes are reshaping the Tinder experience. That's what today is all about, and that's why I'm so excited. I'm excited for you to hear what we've been working on and to hear it directly from the people and the teams who have been building these features.
Approximately 600 people at Tinder from L.A. to New York to Ghent, Belgium, to Seoul and everywhere in between, spending every day thinking about and building new ways to spark connections for millions of people around the world. We're going to share updates today around four key areas. Number one, we're expanding Tinder into new formats, including new modes as well as virtual and in-real life or IRL experiences to enable more fun, low-pressure ways to connect. The way people connect on Tinder today looks very different than even 12 months ago. Since I joined, we launched two new modes, Double Date Mode and College Mode. Double Date is transforming how people use Tinder. Nearly half of Gen Z female Tinder users in the U.S. say that Double Date is a key reason why they choose to use Tinder. That's more than just some incremental improvement.
It's a significant shift in why people use Tinder and how they use it. Today, we're announcing two new ways to connect through shared tastes and personalities, not just photos on your profile, with Music Mode and Astrology Mode. We're also extending Tinder beyond the screen because today we're launching IRL events bookable in the app in Los Angeles, creating real-world moments where Tinder users can meet up in person. Soon we'll begin testing video speed dating in several cities across the U.S. because this is what we hear from young daters about how they want to connect. The blending of the digital and the physical worlds together in a fun, safe, and low-pressure way. Together, our new modes and events have the potential to reshape how Tinder is perceived, moving us far beyond the legacy stereotypes of a decade ago.
Number two, we are redesigning the profile experience to enable more authentic expression and drive higher quality matches. We've in fact rethought the profile experience entirely, and we're rolling out a series of huge updates globally, introducing new tools to help people put their best foot forward. Photo Prompts, which we launched last year, add personality directly into photos. The new launches, which you'll learn about today, like Photo Enhance, will improve lighting and clarity of images, and Camera Roll Scan will help surface authentic moments hidden in your old photos and create visual collages that reflect one's interests. We're also evolving the design with full-screen photos and a clearer, more immersive interface. This makes Tinder more expressive, more dynamic, and more modern.
With Tinder Connect, we're bringing the apps and platforms that people already love into their Tinder experience, so they can bring more of their real lives into how they show up. Area number three, we're using AI in new ways to better understand user intent and deliver more relevant outcome-driven matches. Because just getting matches is not the goal. They have to be relevant, and they have to lead somewhere. Over the past year, we've completely rebuilt the Tinder algorithm and how it learns using AI to better understand intent, preferences, and behavior. Today we're introducing you to Learning Mode, which helps us respond more quickly to what someone is actually looking for so better matches show up earlier. We're also expanding our Chemistry feature today, our AI-powered personalization layer, beyond just Australia and New Zealand into Canada and the United States.
Tinder users have said that they're interested in AI, but only if it leads to better outcomes. Instead of replacing connection or standing in for authenticity, we're using AI to help move people towards better connections. Number four, we're continuing to raise the bar for safety across the category and investing at an unmatched scale. Trust is the foundation of everything that we do at Tinder. Over the past few years, we've launched more than 20 trust and safety features globally, helping set the standard not just in the dating category, but also in social media. We invest over $125 million every year in trust and safety across our portfolio, and that reflects the importance that we place on safety as the foundation of the product experience. Our Face Check feature provides mandatory facial liveness verification.
It has reduced exposure to bad actors and bot accounts by more than 60% and lowered bad actor reports by over 40% in key markets since we've launched it. Face Check is now live today in the U.S. and dozens of other countries, and we're continuing to expand it internationally, raising the bar on what safe, real connection looks like. Because when people trust what they see and whom they see, they're more willing to start. Taken together, all these changes mark the most significant evolution of our app in years, and they make Tinder today meaningfully different than a year ago. More social, more expressive, more intelligent, more trusted. Each of these areas matters, but what really matters is how they work together as a system. You know, when they work together as a system, we drive better outcomes.
We create stronger trust, lower pressure, richer profiles, and better connections. You're gonna hear more about all of these new features and updates from leaders across our team who are building this next chapter of Tinder. Mark Kantor, our head of product, Yoel Roth, who leads trust and safety, product leaders Claire Watanabe and Hillary Paine, and Melissa Hobley, our head of marketing. Before that, I want to talk about an important and deliberate shift that we made six months ago to make all of this happen. We became a product and engineering-led organization with a founder mindset focused on user experiences and real outcomes. We changed how we measure success. It's not just by activity in the app, and it's not by surface-level engagement, and it's not short-term revenue. We measure success at Tinder by whether people are actually connecting. Because here's what we learned.
For over 18% of women under 30 who told us that they stepped away from the dating app category, their reason was not a lack of matches. It was that those matches didn't actually turn into conversations. That's the gap. That moment between a like and something real. That's what we call a spark. A spark is the signal we use internally to measure whether we're truly creating connection, not just matches. A spark to our users is that reply that turns into a conversation. It's the shift from maybe to let's see where this goes. It's the butterflies when you meet someone new on Tinder. It's the feels. It's that shared energy between people. We are not optimizing for swipes or likes. We are optimizing for sparks. It's changing what we prioritize and how we build.
That's also why today's event was called SPARKS 2026: Start Something New. To show you how we're building towards more sparks, I'm going to hand it over to our Chief Product Officer, Mark Kantor. Mark is a startup founder and a product leader with more than 20 years of experience building consumer apps at scale. From growing apps at Zynga by millions of daily active users to creating products used by tens of millions worldwide. Please welcome Mark Kantor.
Yeah, yeah. Come on. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Thanks, Spencer. If sparks are the goal, every product decision has to move people forward, not just generate activity. Because activity alone doesn't matter. Despite some of the external chatter about dating fatigue or Gen Z stepping away from the category, we see a massive opportunity to deliver the experience they're craving. The desire to connect is as strong as ever. What's changed is what people expect from the experience. They don't want an endless stream of random profiles, and they don't want to judge or be judged in a split second based on just a couple of photos. They want something intentional. They want authenticity and to show up as their real selves. They want to understand more about someone before they decide to match. What they're asking for is a curated experience.
The sense that people they're genuinely excited to meet are already on the app and that Tinder can help surface them. When they invest in expressing who they are, the app responds intelligently, learning from their behavior, understanding their intent, and delivering recommendations that feel aligned.
They want help accurately representing themselves. To share more of their personality through prompts and show their hobbies through the right photos. To get started with tools that make self-expression easier and more fun. Our perspective is that the chatter about fatigue wasn't a signal that young daters don't want to date or don't need Tinder. It was a signal about where we had an opportunity, where expectations had evolved, where we needed to step up. In fact, 50% of singles under 30 have had a first date in the past three months, and that's up from 47% in the same time frame in 2024. The need to connect hasn't weakened. The tools required to do it have changed. That's why, as Spencer said, we shifted our approach and we became a product and engineering-led organization focused on user outcomes, especially for today's daters.
The past 12 months have been about building based on those insights, and the early signs are encouraging. They show we're moving in the right direction. A spark is our internal measurement. It's when two users message back and forth at least six times, which signals mutual engagement. That only happens when the experience works together as a system. Over the past year, we've aligned around five core principles that guide how Tinder builds today. First, lower the pressure to spark possibilities. Dating can be intimidating, so creating lower pressure means removing friction that keeps people from starting and setting them up to connect in their own ways and on their own terms. That matters because when we look at how young singles describe their ideal first date, it's not about grand gestures.
It's about something playful and low pressure, a walk, a coffee, something that fits naturally into their lives. Second, create a canvas for people to express themselves authentically. When people feel like they can show who they are, connection becomes easier. Third, personalize the user experience. When someone shares their interests, their preferences, or their dating intent, the app should adapt. That's where we think AI strengthens the system. We use AI to help recognize patterns of behavior, prioritize stronger signals, and improve the probability that interest turns into conversation. It helps new users see better recommendations sooner, and it helps experienced users refine what they're looking for. Matches are better and conversations start more often. Fourth, make the experience more valuable. That means fewer stalled conversations, fewer dead ends, and more moments that move towards sparks.
Most importantly, continue to reinforce trust as a prerequisite for everything that happens on and off our app. Profile realness and respectful behavior between users are requirements for connection. Every launch, every test, every update runs through these principles. If it doesn't move people toward a spark, we don't ship it. We're moving faster than ever. We're shipping features at twice the pace of a year ago. With generative AI helping us build smarter and more efficiently, writing more than half of all new code, which allows engineers to spend more time on architecture, creative problem-solving, and building features to improve the dating experience. Product and engineering are operating differently now with greater urgency, faster iteration, stronger experimentation, and better performance and stability. Consumers may not see how we work internally, but they absolutely feel the outcome.
That momentum is showing up in the features we offer. Let's take Double Date, which has quickly taken hold. It's the most impactful product innovation we've launched in years, and it's significantly reshaping how young people experience Tinder. Double Date works because it makes dating feel social, fun, and low pressure. When you show up with a friend, dating feels less like a test and more like an experience. There's energy in a four-way group chat and fun in the shared experience of a low-pressure meetup that's not as intimidating as a one-on-one date. As Spencer mentioned, 48% of Gen Z women on Tinder in the U.S. cite Double Date as a unique reason to use Tinder. Today, one in five female Tinder users in the U.S. ages 18 to 22 have a Double Date pair.
In Norway, one of the first countries where we launched Double Date mode, that number is nearly one in two. Because we launched early there, it's had time to build real momentum. What we're seeing in Norway gives us confidence in the trajectory elsewhere. This isn't just a one-off spike. During peak moments like Christmas, New Year's Eve, and Dating Sunday, Double Date invites surged, with women sending around 20% more invites and men around 30% more. That momentum continued into the new year. That tells us this is a behavioral shift. Modern dating is social. Approximately 40% of young singles say their friends influence their dating lives. Group chats are part of that process. In fact, 22% of Gen Z women have heard of Double Date from a friend.
Friends are their emotional co-pilots, and Double Date brings that dynamic directly into the product. Conversations in Double Date matches also tend to be more dynamic, with users sending more messages per match than in one-on-one chats. Across Double Date, College Mode, and Face Check, our mandatory facial liveness verification, one pattern shows up again and again. When we lower pressure and raise trust, connections increase. That's the path forward. Our work to make Tinder the safest way to meet new people deserves its own focus.
I'm going to hand it over to Yoel, the Head of Trust and Safety, to talk about how we are continuing to build confidence directly into the experience. Yoel is one of the world's leading voices in online safety, and as SVP of Trust and Safety at Match Group and formerly head of Trust and Safety at Twitter, he has spent years leading global teams focused on content moderation, platform integrity, security, and responsible innovation.
Thanks, Mark, and hey, everyone. Before I dive into what's new at Tinder, I actually wanna share a little bit about my own history in this space. Nearly 15 years ago, when Tinder was brand new, I was working on a PhD studying safety issues on dating apps. Along the way, I also met the guy who's now my husband on an app. I've seen firsthand the incredible transformative power of this category. As now, one thing was clear: earning and maintaining trust is the key to success for dating apps. It has to be the foundation of everything that we do. At Tinder, we talk a lot about how it starts with a swipe, and I think that's true of safety too.
The double opt-in swipe feature that Tinder invented and patented, which means that people can only message each other once both parties have opted in, was not just a product innovation that turned the online dating category on its head, it was a safety principle from the start. Two people choose each other before messaging begins. That mutuality and focus on consent changed modern dating for the better. Since then, we've built for safety across the Tinder experience. Let me give you just a few examples of the more than 20 different features we've introduced over the years. Share My Date lets you easily share your plans with a trusted friend or family member, giving people even more confidence when they take the step of connecting IRL.
Traveler Alert proactively helps queer people on the road understand if there might be risks associated with their identity and helps them manage their visibility on Tinder. Optional ID Verification gives folks powerful ways to confirm their matches are authentic. We have helped define the standards for this category. My two personal favorite features, Are You Sure? and Does This Bother You?, are a really meaningful step towards guiding conversations in real time and are powerful examples of how technology can help change human behavior for the better. Let me break down a little bit about how they work. A lot of times we talk about trust and safety as being about punishing people when they behave badly, but I believe we need to turn that dynamic on its head and try to get ahead of content that might be inappropriate. Are You Sure?
Does exactly that by prompting someone to reconsider language that might be over the line before they send a message. Does This Bother You? is on the other side of that dynamic. Connecting is deeply personal, and a message that's over the line for one person might be totally fine for someone else. With Does This Bother You?, we proactively check in with users about messages that we think might be inappropriate and give them immediate agency to report problematic behavior. These systems work. We consistently see users revise messages after a prompt. Taken together, these are small interventions that improve the tone of conversations across the platform. We first introduced these features in 2021, and today we're announcing the biggest update they've received in their history. We're using the power of large language models to make both features even more effective.
These updates move us beyond rule-based detection to context-aware understanding. Instead of relying primarily on a list of inappropriate keywords, the LLM-based system can better interpret tone and conversational context and help get at content that might be too much too soon or otherwise contribute to the ick factor that can sometimes go with first messages. The result, we believe, are better, smarter speed bumps, interventions that are better timed, more precise, less intrusive. On the recipient side, we wanna give people even more control upfront, and we'll flag and hide potentially inappropriate messages in real time. If you're okay with something a little bit spicier, no problem, you can see it. Does This Bother You? will help keep things even safer by default. Our new LLM-powered version has shown a more than 10x improvement in the accuracy of our detections.
Together, this reinforces respectful behavior as the foundation of the Tinder experience, steps that are critical to expanding category usage among Gen Z female users and, frankly, all other user groups too. Conversation safety is only one part of trust, and that's where Face Check comes in. Face Check is our mandatory facial liveness verification for new users. During onboarding, users complete a quick video selfie to help confirm they're real and that their photos accurately represent them. Once complete, and if their video selfie matches their profile, users earn a badge that signals authenticity. From the perspective of our users, Face Check is built to be quick and easy. Most people can complete the process in just a few seconds and get back to what they're on Tinder to do, find sparks. There's real magic that comes from strengthening our identity checks at the front door.
Since introducing Face Check, we've seen significant measurable decreases in bots, impersonation, and repeat bad actors. As Spencer mentioned, we've seen more than 60% fewer views on bad actor profiles and a 40% drop in reports in regions where Face Check is live. This is by far the most impactful trust and safety feature I have seen in my career, and the results are real. There's less annoying spam and more trust. In the U.S., we've pushed Face Check even further and are using this technology to help keep serious bad actors and scammers that have previously been banned from Tinder off the app, and the results have been striking. Since we've rolled out this functionality in January, more than 80% of repeat bad actor accounts are removed within the first day of re-registering, compared to less than half previously.
Face Check's just one part of our approach. A secure video selfie is a quick and easy way to verify authenticity, but we also are giving people access to a wide range of tools to confirm they're legit. In Japan, we've launched an industry-leading integration with World ID, which makes Tinder the first dating app to use their pioneering biometric humanness verification. Our team in Seoul have built advanced AI to help keep underage users off Tinder and ensure that photos are appropriate. We've been working with leading companies like Reality Defender to try to stay ahead of issues like deepfakes and AI-generated profile pics. All of this is in service of one goal: earn our users' trust. We know that when people trust what they're seeing, they're more willing to engage.
On the flip side, if people hesitate because they doubt who they're talking to, sparks do not happen. On Tinder, trust should feel built in, consistent, proactive, present from the moment you open the app. Because when trust is strong, people start, and starting is everything. To show you how we build on that foundation, I'm gonna hand it over to one of our incredible product leaders. Claire Watanabe leads Tinder's end-to-end product experience as VP of Product, overseeing the teams behind onboarding, swipe, chat, and modes. She's the product leader behind Double Date, bringing a more social, immersive energy to the app.
Thanks, Yoel. Yoel talked about trust as infrastructure. That's the foundation. Trust gets people in the door. Expression is what gets them through it. A spark starts when someone sees something real in another person. Not just a photo, but a signal of who they actually are. A song they love, a shared sense of humor, something that makes you curious. That's what we're building towards with modes. Each one designed around a different form of self-expression to start a different context. Today, I'm thrilled to announce that we're launching Astrology Mode along, alongside a redesign of Music Mode that will help people connect based on their interests. Let's talk about music. Music is personal. It makes you feel something. That feeling changes which profiles you actually like. When your favorite song comes on right as someone's profile appears, something clicks.
It's not a thought, it's a feeling. It's simple, but it's powerful. In fact, more than half of matches in the U.S. involve at least one person that has a Spotify anthem on their profile. We took a fresh look at Music Mode, which hadn't been meaningfully updated in nearly 5 years, and we redesigned it to better reflect how people actually use music when dating. This is a sound-on experience. It's immersive, it's visual, it's full screen. It's the kind of experience modern daters already expect from the apps they live in. We're bringing that energy to dating. Music Mode lets you select up to 20 songs. In this case, let's add my new favorite song, Something New. I'll add a few others to round out the vibe. Visually, the mode now feels more modern and integrated with the rest of Tinder.
As you discover people in this new dedicated space, you'll hear a snippet from one of their songs. You see shared artists, overlapping genres. You're taking in someone's photos and their music at the same time. There's something about hearing someone's music that makes them feel closer. It gives this sense of depth to the person in a surprisingly effective way. Behind the scenes, the algorithm is matching you based on shared music taste. The people you're discovering are already share your vibe. When you match, the song you connected on shows up in chat. The conversation starts from something you already share. We soft launched in select markets last month, and already we're seeing that one in 10 18-22-year-olds have adopted it, and there are signs of long-term positive sparks for women.
These are strong signals that this drives both engagement and the kind of context that leads to real connection. We are also launching a brand-new mode, Astrology Mode. If Music Mode is about a shared feeling, Astrology Mode gives you a lens on compatibility. It's not just that someone's a Leo. It's about how your sign and their sign come together. For Gen Z, astrology has become a shared language for talking about personality and chemistry. We hear it constantly from our users, our focus groups, and our younger employees. From our early testing, we see women like 17% more profiles in Astrology Mode. This is a big deal. It tells us that women are finding real value and real reasons to connect when they otherwise would have said no. We worked with professional astrologers to ensure our content is thoughtful and credible while still keeping it lighthearted.
When you enter astrology mode, your sun sign is automatically populated with your birthdate, which we already have from your profile. If you choose, you can add your birth time and place and unlock your moon and rising. In astrology, these are known as your big three. Honestly, onboarding's kind of fun itself. You learn something about yourself before you even start browsing. I already knew I was a Cancer, but I didn't know my moon sign reflects my emotional side or that my rising is in Leo. As you begin to browse, you see your big three for your potential matches. Luca here is a Leo sun, Libra moon, and Cancer rising, and right away I can see our compatibility. If you want to dive in further, I tap into the full breakdown. Our cosmic sparks across vibes, communication, emotion, and sizzle. Even our element mix.
Luke and I are 50% water, so the emotional connection could be strong. It's not just here's who they are, it's here's what could happen between you two. I'm swiping right on Luca, and it's a match. Right away, I'm reminded why. Cancer, Leo, different styles, but opposites attract. That insight follows us straight into chat, and Luca's already got something to say. "So we're pretty different, huh?" Just like that, the conversation's started. No awkward opener, just context that makes it easy to begin. We quietly launched Astrology Mode in Australia and selected European markets last month, and the response has been incredible. Nearly one in six of our 18- to 22-year-olds have adopted it. For a brand-new feature, this is a super strong signal. It tells us this is the kind of context that daters have been looking for.
We see both music and astrology mode resonating strongly with our young daters. Shared context, cultural relevance, lower pressure. We found a formula, and we're just getting started. I'm going to hand things over to Hillary Paine, Tinder's SVP of Product, who leads the teams behind Tinder's recommendation algorithms, premium subscriptions, and international growth and expansion. She spent her career building mission-driven, human-centric products that meet real-world needs at a massive scale. She's going to share some of the other ways we're helping people connect.
Thank you, Claire. What you've seen so far are exciting new formats that we're ready to scale globally. We believe in starting small before we build big. Testing in real markets, learning in real time, and scaling only when something proves it creates real sparks. That discipline is how we move faster. Alongside our global launches, we are also running smaller format tests in select markets. These are ideas designed to explore entirely new ways to start, and I'm excited to share two of these with you today. First, I'm excited to announce IRL events. Instead of defaulting to a one-on-one first date, which can be too narrow an outcome for young daters, we are creating low-pressure group experiences with shared interests and activities at the center. I want you to think about coffee shop raves, speakeasy bowling, trivia nights, pickleball tournaments, art workshops.
We're focused on creating more environments where these kinds of connections can happen because your dating life and your social life can and do happen in the same spaces. Beginning today in Los Angeles, users will see a new Events tab in Tinder. As our beta market, Tinder users in L.A. can open that tab and browse through curated events that are happening over the next month. We're working with favorite local spots to represent a variety of different ways to connect and offer meetups across different L.A. neighborhoods so that attendees can start somewhere that feels familiar. Let's say you're interested in the coffee and cold plunge event. Once you opt in, you'll see the details, the venue, and other people who've expressed interest. They're all photo verified. Everyone there has opted in. That clarity removes social uncertainty before the first conversation even begins.
Now, we wanted to solve for this IRL need as quickly as possible. We went from ideation to proof of concept to a beta that is live in the app today in just 10 weeks. We're continuing to expand on elements of the experience and will soon be introducing new features, like the ability to connect with somebody who was at the event in the app after the event. We're starting in just one city, but we see meaningful long-term potential. Experiences like IRL events, along with Double Date and other social features, offer completely new ways for people who are new to Tinder or returning to Tinder to spark something new with someone new. When connection feels social and intentional, it becomes easier to start.
Now, we know that the fastest way to create that spark is meeting face-to-face, but you can't always do that IRL. That's why we're also excited to announce that we are exploring a new speed dating experience that is designed to help people form real-time connections on Tinder sooner. The short interaction style relieves the pressure of committing to a full date while still giving you the sense of your chemistry with somebody. Users we've spoken to have really enjoyed the spontaneity and intentionality of connecting with someone in real time and getting to know the person behind the profile. We decided to offer an experience that covers both of those needs. Making it virtual means that more daters can spend their time on the app talking directly to other people face-to-face.
Video speed dating events will also live in the Events tab, and it will require photo verification. At a set date and time, users will join a live video meetup where they're introduced to people who match their Tinder preferences. They'll be set into a series of short three-minute conversations. Now, in just three minutes, you can really start to get a feel for someone's energy, and you'll know if the vibe is right. If it isn't, you can skip. If the spark is real, you can both choose to add more time and keep chatting. For many people, the hardest part of dating is investing time, getting ready, energy, getting to the place, and showing up, only to know that within minutes it's not a match.
These virtual sessions are giving you a preview of what a real date could feel like, and it's bringing back that adrenaline of meeting someone new, but in a way that feels controlled, safe, and intentional. Video speed dating will start testing in L.A. in early June with the intention of rolling out to additional markets in the near future. Now, Claire's going to come back on and talk about how we are reimagining profiles.
We talked about new places for a spark to start, in a mode, via events, but the moment, those moments depend on the same thing, a first impression. At the core of every first impression on Tinder is a profile, and we're fundamentally redesigning profiles from the ground up, how you build them, what they show, and how they feel. The goal of a profile isn't just something to display their details, but to actually represent them. Historically, Tinder profiles have been almost all photos, but not the kind that tell you much. A polished selfie, a group shot where you're trying to guess which one is your potential match. Gen Z really wants to be perceived authentically. They're not looking to perform. They're looking to be seen. A profile shouldn't feel like a resume. It should feel like a real taste of someone.
Let's walk through how we're making that happen. This is Jamie. Here's what Jamie's profile looked like a year ago. Photo verified. Here's a selfie of Jamie and another selfie of Jamie. That's a start. He has a nice smile, but I just can't really get a read on him. Let's rebuild Jamie's profile in this new era of Tinder profiles. We're introducing Photo Enhance that make your pictures look a touch better. We brighten Jamie's dark photo, so I can actually see his face, but it still preserves the integrity of the photo. He can also add captions to his photo, showing off his sense of humor and giving me something to respond to. Jamie says I should guess where this photo was taken. Well, I see the New York skyline, so it's kind of a layup. What a gentleman.
If he's stuck and doesn't know which photo to add, he can opt in to our Camera Roll Scan. It looks at his photos and surfaces the best ones that best reflect how he actually spends his time. Eventually, he'll be able to display those interests as photo collages, turning a text label like travel into something you can actually see and feel. Jamie still thinks something's missing in his profile, some important sides of him, maybe his wit, a cute quirk. Photos can't be the only and primary modality for expression. It just doesn't work that way for everyone. That's why we're putting a much greater emphasis on the written parts of a profile, bios and prompts. Jamie's not a writer, so we're going to give him some prompts to help him out. Jamie says he's a bit of a passenger princess.
Luckily, I prefer the driver's seat, so this could work. When Jamie joins Tinder today, he's encouraged to add a bio and prompts during onboarding. They're no longer buried in the depths of his profile. They're elevated, sitting alongside his photos in the main carousel, so people engage with who Jamie is, not just how he looks. What about Jamie's interests? Right now, they're a text list at the bottom of his profile that's easy to miss. We're gonna change that. Interests, especially the ones you have in common, are some of the best conversation kindling there is. Now, let's see. Jamie says he's interested in food, sports, and movies. Through our partnership with Clue, we can see The Sandlot, Dune, Batman, and his all-time favorite, and mine, Wicked. These show up alongside visually the rest of his photos.
Again, they're playful, scannable, and give you that instant read. Interests stop being an afterthought. They go from footnote to first impression. To make this a lot more about Jamie and less about Tinder, we're redesigning the experience itself. Photos and content go full screen. Navigation fades into the background with a glossy minimal look. The UI gets out of the way so that Jamie, the person, comes through. Now with all of this, Jamie's profile is richer now. We've got better photos, more personality, more conversation starters. There's a whole side of Jamie that lives outside of the app. Through Tinder Connect, we're making it possible to bring that in. We're partnering with apps people already love to add a new dimension to how they show up. We already talked about our partnership with Spotify for the music category, but wait, there's more.
For the learning category, we're launching with Duolingo. Duolingo has over 130 million users globally and taps into Gen Z's growing importance of continual self-development. We see this in research with roughly 70% of Gen Z's skill building at least weekly, compared to 59% of millennials. Tinder partnering with Duolingo makes it easier to connect over what you're both learning. After all, what's more fun than flirting with someone who's just beating your Duolingo streak in Hindi? It's another dimension of authentic expression and may even remove one last barrier to connecting with someone. For the restaurant category, we're launching with Beli. Where you eat can say a lot about you, and Beli has become the food app in cities.
Whether you're the person who knows every hole-in-the-wall ramen shop or the one with a running list of places to try, your food taste tells someone what a Saturday night might actually look like with you. Beli is the social hub for exactly this, rankings, reviews, lists that reflect how you move through your city. Through Connect, that becomes a part of your profile. These aren't just integrations. Jamie doesn't need to rebuild his profile from scratch. He connects the apps he already uses and loves, and his profile gets richer on their own. We are so honored and excited to be working alongside these partners to give people more ways to show who they are, more context to connect, and more reasons to say yes. That's how you create sparks. Hillary's going to dive in.
Hillary's going to dive into how all this feeds into better outcomes for our users.
Lowering pressure and expanding expression is only half the equation. The experience also has to feel responsive. App fatigue comes from effort that doesn't lead anywhere. Tinder starts by understanding your intent. What you say you're looking for matters, and every like and every profile update adds another signal. Over time, Tinder learns what you care about, and it adapts. It starts surfacing people who are more aligned with your preferences. The result? Stronger, more personalized recommendations faster. For you, updates quickly and reflects mutual compatibility more clearly. Over the past year, we've completely rebuilt how Tinder learns from your very first likes. Introducing personalization earlier in your journey so that recommendations become relevant sooner. Now, within just seconds. When you download Tinder, a new Learning Mode begins gathering feedback in real-time to refine your recommendations. Instead of endless browsing, you start seeing better recommendations right away.
For new women joining Tinder, Learning Mode increases the likelihood of returning within the first week and of getting into real back-and-forth conversations that spark something meaningful. If you come back after a break, Tinder quickly relearns your preferences, so you spend less time re-explaining what you want and more time getting into great conversations within just a few likes. We recognize that some daters can feel frustrated by paywalls in the category. We believe that premium features should feel like added value, not a requirement for success. Over the past year, we've identified the features that matter the most for driving momentum, and we've made more of them free in the core experience. That shift supports better outcomes for users while maintaining strong revenue performance. For you, Learning Mode and richer profile tools all reflect the same shift.
Building the product around helping users get to better outcomes faster. Sparks should be experienced by everyone. When effort feels rewarded, people show up more consistently, and their engagement provides us the signals that our system needs to work harder on their behalf. Those changes are working. After a year of investing in better recommendations, we've driven meaningful growth in the share of people who get a spark on Tinder. It is up 7% compared to this time last year. That is what happens when recommendations work the way that they should. Less guessing, more alignment, more sparks. When you ask someone what personalization looks like for them, there's a high chance that their answer is different from the next person you ask, and the next person, and the next person. We are each unique, and we're looking for something that makes sense for us.
That's why we believe that daters should have different opportunities to shape their recommendations. There are different levels to this. For daters looking for even more curation, there's Chemistry. Chemistry is an AI-powered personalization layer which leverages insights from Camera Roll Scan and responses to in-app questions. It's designed to reduce fatigue with a few highly tailored recommendations daily. Chemistry is already live in New Zealand and Australia, and it expands today to test in parts of the US and Canada. With Chemistry, we can surface even better recommendations by getting to know the users themselves. Earlier, Claire walked through how Camera Roll Scan can lead to better expression. Now I'm going to show you that it can also surface insights that lead to better matches. Donnie's camera roll shows that he prefers to keep things real and relaxed.
His answers to Q&A share that he's into books and memes. Now we can introduce him to someone who shares that same energy, the same values, and the same interests. It reduces the need to endlessly browse because the first profiles feel like the right ones. Even as they're looking for connection, Gen Z singles cited mental drain and app fatigue as a leading reason to not try dating apps. They over-index more than any other group. Chemistry moves us from volume to compatibility. In a study in Australia, we saw that users who were familiar with Chemistry were 11 points more likely to think that the profiles they saw felt relevant to them and 10 points more likely to view the experience as thoughtful and intentional. For these daters, Tinder starts to feel worth it.
When it feels worth it, people have meaningful experiences that match their expectations. When it feels worth it, we are fulfilling a very real human need. Now to bring it all together from a brand and cultural perspective, I'd like to introduce Melissa Hobley, who is Tinder's head of marketing, leading brand, marketing, communications, and partnerships worldwide. She's known for award-winning inclusive campaigns and for using her platform to champion LGBTQ plus equality and women's equity around the world.
Hi, everybody. What a great room. You've been hearing about how we're lowering pressure, how we're strengthening trust, and how we're introducing brand new ways for people to spark connection. I get to talk about what this means beyond the product experience. For more than a decade, yes, a decade, Tinder has expanded what dating looks like and who gets to participate. We introduced the swipe feature. Yes, we didn't just launch a tool with a swipe, but we reset the way people expressed interest. We made getting started a lot easier. We didn't just define a product, we defined new possibilities for connection because when you lower the barrier to starting at a global scale, you expand participation.
That's what we're doing again now with Music Mode, with Astrology Mode, with IRL events, with virtual speed dating, not to mention stronger trust systems and smarter recommendations, which you heard about just a little bit ago. These aren't just features. They're new ways to help people express who they are before they even have a chance to meet. When millions of people experience dating that way, we believe that the culture is going to move with them. We saw it in music a lot this year for Tinder. When Bad Bunny writes one of the most talked about albums of the last decade and writes Tinder into a song, that's not an ad. It's cultural shorthand. When Lily Allen wrote one of the most talked about albums all about modern relationships, Tinder is also part of that story because Tinder is modern dating.
Tinder isn't just present on social platforms. It's embedded in how people narrate their lives. There have been more than 24 billion views mentioning Tinder on TikTok. 24 billion. Yeah, that's a big number. Women are sharing their beige flags and their green flags and their get ready with me for my Tinder date videos. Couples that met on Tinder are hard-launching their relationships on TikTok and YouTube and Snap and Instagram. We're not just interrupting those conversations, we're a core part of them. The cultural momentum only works if people really feel safe enough and if they feel confident enough to participate. That's why lowering pressure really matters. That's why building the trust really matters because when people feel lighter, they're more likely to show up and put themselves out there, and more women are likely to show up.
For women, the possibilities that Tinder is bringing to life are powerful. It creates access to people they may have never crossed paths with. It creates the ability, very importantly, to disengage instantly if those vibes are off. It's made dating more transparent, it's made dating more self-directive, and it's made dating more expansive. Let's talk about the expansive part. One of my favorite things to talk about with Tinder is the significant role that Tinder has played in the lives of LGBTQ communities around the world. For many people, you may not know this, for many people in the LGBTQ space, Tinder is the first place where they will come out. It's where affirmation is critically important, and it's where they'll start to find community. Today, nearly 30% of matches on Tinder are with LGBTQ users. That is the highest in Tinder's history.
Yeah, you can clap for that. I clap for that. At Tinder, we believe in creating the best experiences for queer users, but we also believe that we should play a role in supporting the fight for equality around the world for these communities. A historic step in this fight was last year, about this time last year, when Thailand became the first country in Southeast Asia to legalize same-sex marriage. That's me. Tinder was the only company invited to be on the stage by the Prime Minister because of the role we play in supporting those communities and because of our standing around the world. It's not just in supporting these communities around the world, but it's in our partnerships and our collaborations.
When we get to partner with iconic fashion designers like Willy Chavarria, Ottolinger, EGONLAB, LoveShackFancy, it's not just a logo placement or a great hoodie, although it is a great hoodie. It is about backing these communities who use Tinder every single day. It's about supporting youth advocacy around the world. It's about supporting efforts to end violence against women and efforts against violence against queer communities. Inclusion is not trendy for Tinder. It is not seasonal. It's foundational and it's cultural. When we design safer systems, marginalized communities feel more confident starting. They feel more confident putting themselves out there. Because I'm in marketing, I love a sizzle. Let's take a look at what I mean.
You met Jason on Tinder.
I did.
I gotta get back on Tinder.
Yes, I am on Tinder.
Thank you, Tinder. I love you, Tinder.
Tinder just gave heartbroken people the perfect place to dump their ex.
How we love is who we are. I gotta add this to my Tinder profile.
I feel really, really proud watching that back. I feel proud about the scale of Tinder's impact. I feel really proud about the diversity of our impact. No matter where we are in the world, you just saw in the video, our mission is quite simple. It's to spark to be the most fun way to spark something new with someone new. I'll say this, I've been here three years. I have not seen this level of momentum at Tinder in my time here. It's not just the new features and the trust and safety work. It's about how we're building, and it's about how we're showing up for users around the world. In the coming months, you're gonna see that shift more clearly. You'll see it in the product.
You'll see it in our brand campaigns, in our socials, in our partnerships, and the nonprofits and advocates we support around the world. If the sparks are working, people won't say, "Oh, Tinder added new features." They'll say, "Tinder feels different." The person that has led this focus and this pace is Spencer Rascoff, our fearless leader. Spencer, please come back up here and bring it home.
Thanks, Melissa. Thank you, Mark, Yoel, Claire, Hillary, and the entire Tinder team behind the scenes. We've shown you a lot today, but let's remember where Tinder was just a year ago. Profiles were simpler. There were fewer ways to express who you are, fewer ways to start a conversation, and fewer ways to meet beyond a one-to-one match. Today, Tinder looks very different. As of this morning, Music Mode and Astrology Mode are live globally, including launching in the U.K. and the U.S. Double Date is live worldwide and outperforming expectations, making dating more social and lower pressure. We're bringing Tinder into real-world events here in Los Angeles in beta, creating new ways to connect through IRL. We're also launching virtual speed dating to create more low-pressure ways for people to connect. Profiles are becoming richer and more expressive.
AI is working behind the scenes to reduce friction and improve recommendations, helping people find more relevant matches. We're continuing to roll out new features and products like Chemistry, which move us from volume to real alignment. At the same time, we continue to make unmatched investments in trust and safety. With mandatory Face Check in key countries and rolling out globally, we're well on our way to making Tinder the safest dating app to meet someone new. These are not just incremental things. It's a platform-wide shift. Over the past year, we have fundamentally changed the Tinder experience. We aligned the company around one measurable outcome, creating more sparks, lower pressure, stronger trust, smarter relevance. When those pieces come together, something powerful happens. Connection stops feeling complicated and starts feeling possible. A year ago, Tinder was a place where people swiped.
Today, Tinder helps people connect in more ways with more confidence and with more authenticity than ever before. If we've done all of this in just 12 months, imagine where we'll be this time next year. We are just getting started. Thank you.