Life

Here's How To Find A Facebook Friend On Tinder

by Mariella Mosthof

Finally, an app for those of us who prefer to compartmentalize our social (media) lives. The developers of Friendswipe have generously gifted us with an app that lets you find your Facebook friends on Tinder, just in case you have a crush you're Facebook friends with, but you can't quite figure out how to strike up a conversation that will read as flirty/romantically interested via Messenger. Basically, once you download Friendswipe and log in using your Facebook account, it will pull up a complete list of your Facebook friends who are also on Tinder. Tapping on one of your friends will take you to their linked Tinder profile, which you will be able to see in full (and swipe right on!).

Admittedly, this is useful just for friend/ex/current fling-stalking purposes, too. (I guess you could also Tinder-stalk your very single aunt if you were curious, but there are probably better applications for Friendswipe.) The app's most useful function by far, however, is a quick and easy way to get ahold of an elusive crush's Tinder profile to give them a heads up that you're interested in more than just politely heart-ing their apple-picking photos and having each other's backs in comment wars.

It can be difficult to communicate romantic interest on Facebook, even though you're ostensibly talking about the same video clips, TV shows, memes, Trump gaffes, and personal interests in exactly the same way that you'd be talking about them on Tinder. Facebook just doesn't have a built-in romance (or hookup) implication the same way that Tinder does (or, if Facebook does, it's the slimy sliding-into-your-PMs implication that makes everyone feel gross), so it's tricky to let someone know you're crushing. By contrast, folks are on Tinder explicitly for a romantic connection, even if you wind up just being corgi photo-swapping friends.

And the best part about Friendswipe? It gives you access to all of your Facebook friends' Tinder profiles, regardless of your (or their) gender, age, and location preferences. So if you wanted to peek in on your girlcrush but your Tinder preferences are set to "woman seeking male," you'd be able to view her Tinder profile by pulling her up on Facebook via Friendswipe. Same goes for folks whose age or location preferences you'd normally fall outside of.

Of course, in order to get a Tinder message thread going, you'd have to match. But sometimes, viewing a dating profile gives you all the info you need to strike up a flirtlationship via another platform. You'd better act fast if you want Friendswipe to do your detective work for you, though; since the app technically violates Tinder's Terms of Service by using its database for purposes other than...Tindering.

Images: Andrew Zaeh for Bustle; Giphy