Can You Video Chat on Tinder?

Not with your matches. Tinder says its Face to Face video chat has been deprecated, and you can still message your matches in the chat. In select markets on Android and iOS, Tinder does offer Speed Date: short, live 1-on-1 video sessions with other users, which you find in the Events tab.

Speed Date is Tinder's live video feature. You join from the Events tab and talk face to face with other users in brief 1-on-1 sessions. It is only in select markets, so you may not see it at all.

What it is not is a way to call a woman you have already matched with. Face to Face was the feature for that, and Tinder has retired it. With a match, the chat is all you have inside the app.

So if you want to see and hear her before a date, the call happens outside Tinder.

a dating coach is a strong believer in a short call before the first date, and video if she is up for it. He gives two reasons, and both hold up.

The first is screening. On a call, you find out quickly whether she looks like her photos and whether the two of you actually get on. A woman who is fun in the chat can be flat on the phone, and the reverse happens too. Ten minutes on a call tells you more than a week of texting.

The second is that she shows up. In his experience, a woman who has already talked to you is far more likely to turn up to the date, and to turn up looking forward to it. She has heard your voice and laughed at something you said. You are a real person to her now, not a name in her list.

He also ranks the ways to talk. The more personal the medium, the better. Video beats a phone call, a phone call beats voice notes, and voice notes beat text.

Get her number first. Once she is answering warmly and quickly, ask for it plainly, and move the conversation to text.

Then suggest the call as the easy option rather than a test. "Easier to sort out plans on a quick call. Ten minutes tonight?" is light and practical. She is not being asked to audition. She is being asked to save you both some back and forth.

Use whatever video app you both already have on your phones. If she would prefer a voice call, take it. A voice call gets you most of the benefit.

A first call is not a date. Keep it to ten or fifteen minutes, and keep it light.

Stay out of interview mode. Three factual questions in a row about her job, her hometown and her weekend turn a call into a form. Tease her a little, tell a short story, react to what she says, and let her hear that you are relaxed.

Then end it with the plan: the day, the place and roughly when. Ending on a clear plan is what makes the call worth making. A lovely call with no date at the end of it is just a nicer version of texting.

Some women do not want a video call before a first date, and that is fine. Do not push. Pushing turns an easy suggestion into a demand, and it makes you look anxious.

Offer a quick voice call instead, or skip the call altogether and suggest a short first drink. Pick somewhere public, and somewhere convenient for you. If the evening turns out to be a mismatch, it then costs you very little to finish your drink politely and head home.

Her answer tells you something either way. A woman who happily takes a quick call is usually keen. A woman who would rather meet straight away may simply be private, or busy. Neither is a bad sign on its own.

If Speed Date is in your market, it is worth a go for one reason: practice. Talking to strangers on live video is a skill, and most men are stiff at it because they rarely do it.

Treat the sessions as low-stakes reps. Smile, ask about something you noticed, keep your answers short and warm. The calm you build there carries straight into the call you set up with a woman you actually want to take out.

Tinder has retired Face to Face video chat, so you cannot video call a match inside the app. Speed Date offers live video with other users in select markets. For a woman you have matched with, get her number, suggest a short call, and use it to set the date.