What Is Astrology Mode on Tinder?

Astrology Mode is a Tinder feature that uses information such as your star sign to show you people whose signs are compatible with yours, based on Western astrology. Tinder says it is on Android and iOS in select markets. If it is available to you, you tap the Astrology pill button on your Discovery screen and enter your place and time of birth, and Tinder works out your Moon, Rising or Sun placement. From then on, you see short blurbs about how your placements may fit with the women you are swiping on.

The steps are short, as Tinder lays them out.

1. Open your Discovery screen.
2. Tap the Astrology pill button.
3. Enter your place and time of birth.
4. Tinder works out your Moon, Rising or Sun placement from what you entered.

After that, you get blurbs about how your placements may be compatible with other users.

If you do not see the pill button, the most likely reason is where you are. Tinder offers the mode in select markets only, so it will not appear for everyone. Nothing about your account is wrong, and ordinary swiping works exactly as before.

Read Tinder's wording closely. The blurbs describe how your placements may be compatible. That is a suggestion, not a verdict.

The useful way to treat a blurb is as a conversation starter that both of you can see from the same angle. It is a light, shared thing to react to, which is more than most first lines have. It is not a prediction about whether the two of you will get along across a dinner table.

A woman who opens Astrology Mode has told you something before you say a word. She finds astrology fun at the very least, and she may take it seriously.

If you enjoy astrology too, that is an easy match in outlook, and the mode is a pleasant way to meet women who share it. If you think the whole thing is nonsense, stay out of the mode. Going in to roll your eyes at women who like it wastes your evening and theirs. You would be arguing with the one thing she came there to enjoy.

a dating coach, reviewing one man's dating app page, pointed out that listing a star sign is far more likely to hurt a man than to help him. If a woman takes astrology seriously, a few signs suit hers and many do not. So a sign quietly rules men out before they get a chance.

Astrology Mode does that sorting out in the open, which is fine, since everyone there chose it. But two things still hold.

First, attraction comes before any of this. My point is that a woman does not care what you have in common until she already likes you. A glowing compatibility blurb will not carry photos that do not earn a second look. Your photos still decide her swipe.

Second, do not pass on a woman you are clearly drawn to because a blurb sounds lukewarm. You are choosing a date, not a birth chart. If you like her, say so, and let the evening settle the rest.

One conversation in person from a dating coach's material shows the right tone. Birthdays come up so the two of them can work out their signs and whether they are meant to be, and the man teases her for planning their future together far too fast. None of it is serious, and that is exactly why it works. The astrology is a prop for a bit of fun.

Carry that into the app:

• Tease the sign's reputation, never her. Poke fun at what her sign is famous for, not at who she is.
• Do not lecture her about Moon placements to sound clever. If she knows more than you, let her teach you, and enjoy it.
• Do not pretend to be a believer if you are not. Playful and curious beats fake and earnest.

A line like "Tinder says we're compatible. I say one of us is going to be dramatic about where we eat" uses the blurb and hands her something to push back on. So does "A Leo, so I'm guessing you have strong opinions about who gets the good side of the booth."

A blurb makes a good first line. It is not a whole conversation. Once she is answering with some energy, take it somewhere real.

"The stars apparently approve. I'd rather check in person before I trust a blurb. Drinks on Thursday?" keeps the joke going and puts a plan on the table in the same breath. If she says yes, the astrology has done its job, and you can forget about Moon placements until she brings them up over the second drink.