Last year it was discovered that Tinder users weren’t the only people judging your profile, Tinder as a company was, too. This was all a way for Tinder to assign something called an “Elo score” to users, a nebulous ranking that takes into account the quality of one’s Tinder usage, much like a Lyft or Uber user gets a good ranking for not vomiting. As reported by TechCrunch, it appears that all these internal rankings have been used to launch a super secret part of the app known as Tinder Select, a sort-of VIP section that’s existed for six months without us regular ol’ single people knowing what we were missing out on.
TechCrunch acquired screenshots of the app, which slightly differs from Tinder’s branding by featuring a sleek blue “S” instead of that orange fire emblem, and apparently allows users to switch back and forth between Tinder Select and the standard app. Presumably, this ability is quite useful given that Tinder invited people to this super secret club, with those people having the ability to “nominate” new members. This isn’t the first time an app has tried to build an exclusive user base, as apps like Raya and Bumble have put up their own velvet ropes, but Tinder Select is yet another reminder that, in the VIP section of life, we’re all waiting at the back of the line.