How much swiping did you get up to this year? Some dating app users like to stay glued to their phones and swiping 24/7, while other users are a little more casual and sporadic. But now Tinder, the popular dating app, released data from the past year on how — and when — we're swiping. And the findings are fascinating.
“The data from Tinder’s Year in Swipe is really interesting,” Dr. Darcy Sterling, Tinder’s dating and trend expert, tells Bustle. “It shows how pop culture, news events and trends inspired people’s profiles. We saw that people loved to include their favorite foods in their bio or use a GIF to spark conversation.”
Not only that, their findings gave us a little indicator of how we'll be using the app in the future. "I don’t have a crystal ball, but I expect to see people continue to use the More Genders feature to self-identify rather than limiting their gender identification to binary choices,” Sterling says. “I also think Tinder users will continue to use pop culture references in their bios because having those shared references allows matches to feel intuitively understood by one another.”
The report also reveals when people are most likely to hit up the app. Monday, it turns out — at 6 p.m. PST, specifically, which also translates into 9 p.m. EST. It makes sense, as the whole country is outside of working hours at that time, with plenty of time to swipe.
But sometimes, there are larger forces at play that cause us to take out our phones and get on Tinder. Here were the most popular events and holidays for swiping this year.
1Super Bowl: February 4
If America has one national holiday, it's the Super Bowl. OK, it's probably not technically a national holiday, but it should be — it's a big day in the U.S. calendar. But it turns out, it's also a popular day for love. The Super Bowl was the most popular event for Tinder use because, hey, you have to do something while you're waiting for the halftime show to start.
2Bonnaroo: June 7-10
Music festivals, with their happy, loved-up vibe, proved popular from swiping. Bonnaroo was the second most popular swiping event.
3Coachella: April 13-22
Coachella is famous for its celebrity sightings and its (frankly ridiculous) outfits, but it may also be a hub of romance — or at least hookups. The whole 10-day span of Coachella was busy, making it number three on the most popular event list.
4Royal Wedding: May 19
Who doesn't want their own Meghan Markle fairytale? It turns out, we all do — or at the very least, the romance of the royal wedding had us all swiping away.
5FIFA World Cup: June 14 - July 15
Who says Americans don't like soccer? Finally, the huge international sporting event — the World Cup — had everyone riled up and swiping for a whole month.
There's not a right or wrong way to use Tinder, but it's always interesting to see when most people are using app. When in doubt, Monday at 6 p.m. PST or 9 p.m EST is your sweet spot — or you can just wait for the Super Bowl to roll around again.
