Does Tinder Explore Work for Guys?

It works for some men and wastes the time of others, and nobody outside Tinder publishes results that would settle it. What Explore reliably does is hand you a topic: every woman in a tile has something in common with that theme. What it does not do is make her like you. She still decides on your card, in a few seconds, the same way she does in your main stack. The honest way to find out is to run a short test with your own swiping and count.

Explore groups people into themed tiles, such as a shared interest or a seasonal event. Tinder says some tiles are specific to a region or a period of time, which is why two men in different cities can open it on the same day and see different options.

Swiping inside a tile works as it does anywhere else on Tinder. A right swipe is a like, a left swipe is a pass and a match works the same way. The difference is the pool. It is smaller and it is organized around a theme.

Nothing we have read from Tinder says that Explore boosts a man's reach. It is a way to browse a themed group of people, and it carries no promise of more matches.

a dating coach's point about competition applies in a tile as much as anywhere. Women on apps ignore far more men than they answer. A woman in a music tile has the same pile of men in front of her as a woman in the main stack, so you still need a card that earns the right swipe.

The real advantage is the first message. In the main stack you often know almost nothing about a woman until you read her card. In a tile, you already know one thing she cares about before you open it.

That fixes the problem coach points to in most openers: they give her nothing specific to react to. A shared theme gives you something specific on the first line.

Pay attention to the way you use it. My advice on conversation is that a string of factual questions makes her do all the work. An opinion or a light tease gives her something to play with. If you are in a coffee tile, skip "Do you like coffee?" Tell her the second cup is where the day goes wrong and ask whether she agrees.

A smaller room means you may run through it faster, and you may see the same women again. That is a reasoning point, not a published fact, but it is the likely result of a limited pool.

It also costs you if you pick a tile that does not match your real life. A man who joins a hiking tile and has never hiked builds conversations he cannot continue. A former Tinder programmer made a related point about swiping. He said rapid right swiping reads badly to the app, so open a card and look through it, even inside a tile.

Finally, the tiles change. If one that worked for you disappears, do not assume your results will follow it.

Several men ask about Explore in New York, and the honest answer is that Tinder's tiles are partly local. A theme popular in one city may not appear in another. So do not trust a story from a friend in a different city. Open the tab yourself and see what your tiles offer today.

My method for any change is to set a baseline, change one thing and keep what works.

For the first two weeks, swipe only in your main stack and write down three numbers: how many women like you back, how many reply and how many agree to a plan. For the next two weeks, spend about a third of your time in one tile that fits your actual life, and keep the same notes.

Compare the share who reply. A tile is worth keeping if its matches answer more often, or if its first lines get you further toward a plan. If the numbers are the same, spend your time in the main stack and save yourself the trouble.

Do most of your swiping in the main stack, since it reaches more women. Use a tile when you have a real interest to bring, and let it carry your first line.

Then do what works everywhere else. Write the same day, keep your line short, and head toward a drink on a specific evening. My own texts move from the first line to her number in four to seven messages, and he mentions plans early so that the invitation never appears from nowhere.