NYers are Turning To This App to Find Snow Romance

I'm not going to lie, I'm pretty jealous of everyone I know in New York right now who is reaping the benefits of the snowpocalypse (read: no work, no school, the ability to build backyard igloos, etc.). In addition to the many benefits of a snow day, there's the perk of potentially finding your one true Snowday love — dating app Hinge saw record numbers during the snowstorm. I know, you thought I was going to say Tinder, didn't you? I'm just as pleasantly surprised as you are.

If you don't know, Hinge is a dating app that's sort of like Tinder because it uses your physical location to find you potential matches, but it's also not at all like Tinder because instead of presenting you with total randos, it gives you people you have mutual friends with. Which perhaps explains the sudden surge in app usage — if I wanted to find a cuddle buddy, I'm pretty sure I would feel a heck of a lot more comfortable choosing from people I share some mutual acquaintances with. That way, if things went sour, I would know who to come after.

The spike started on Monday at around 3 p.m., when Hinge's director of Marketing Karen Fein reported people started signing on in droves, reaching a height of 4.75 logins per user — an app record. This translated to a 27 percent increase during peak hours on Monday, and a 22 percent increase in the app overall. If you're a more visual person, you're in luck. Hinge provided a graph showing just how much its activity increased.

Pretty crazy, right? So I guess if you run out of movies to watch on Netflix (is that even possible?) and all your friends are busy, you can always turn to Hinge to find a friend-of-a-friend to hang out with.

Images: theladyelsa / Tumblr; Hinge