Double Date is a Tinder feature that lets you team up with a friend and swipe as a pair. The two of you show up side by side in Discovery, and you swipe on other pairs of friends. When your pair matches another pair, Tinder opens a group chat for all four of you.
How a Double Date pair works
You start by inviting a friend to pair up with you. From then on, women browsing Double Dates see the two of you side by side, and they decide on the pair rather than on either of you alone.
You do the same from your side. Instead of one woman at a time, you are looking at two friends side by side and deciding whether the four of you would have a good evening.
Nothing about your normal account goes away. Double Date sits alongside the usual one-at-a-time Tinder, so you can use both.
What happens after two pairs match
A match between two pairs opens a group chat that includes everyone. That chat is where the plan gets made.
You are not stuck in the group forever, either. Tinder says you can swipe right on one person in a matched pair to open a private chat with her directly. The group chat stays where it is.
Tinder also asks one thing of you in the group: get your friend's consent before sharing private details, such as contact information, with the others.
What it costs and where it works
Tinder lists Double Date as a free feature. It runs on Android, iOS and the web, but only in select markets, so if you cannot find it, it may simply not be offered where you live.
Tinder also says premium features such as Boosts and Super Likes do not work with Double Date. A paid plan does not buy you anything extra here, so there is no reason to upgrade for it.
Why a pair can be easier than going alone
dating advice makes a useful point about group dates in general. They lower the pressure. A woman who is unsure about a man finds it much easier to say yes to something with other people there than to a drink alone with him.
Group plans also answer a worry many women have about a stranger from an app, which is whether he is a bit odd. Seeing him relaxed and joking with a friend settles that question faster than any bio could.
A Double Date card does both things before the first message. You arrive as two friends who clearly get along, and she arrives with her friend beside her. Neither side is walking in alone, and that makes a yes much cheaper for her.
There is a timing benefit as well. dating advice points out that a group plan can get a woman out days sooner than a 1-on-1 slot that only fits your calendar next week. Waiting that long gives her time to cool off or start seeing someone else. A Double Date evening this weekend keeps things warm, and if the two of you get on, the date alone with her can follow a few days later.
Pick your partner carefully
The pair is judged as one thing. If either of you looks bad, both of you lose.
a dating coach warns about a version of this problem with Friends. Men who go out with a Friend spend the night looking for two women who are both attractive, and that narrows the options sharply. A Double Date pair has the same catch. Both of you need to like both of them, and both of them need to like both of you.
So pair with a friend whose taste and goals are close to yours. If you want dates and he wants to trade jokes in the chat for a week, the pair stalls. If he never replies, you end up planning for four on your own, and that gets old fast.
How to turn the group chat into a date
Group chats die in a predictable way. Four people each wait for somebody else to suggest a plan, and a week later nobody has said anything.
Be the one who suggests it. Name a real activity, a day and an area, and make it easy for four people to agree to. dating advice's advice for group outings fits well here. Pick something fun and a little active, and avoid places full of loud, competitive men. Then give the evening a natural end, so everyone leaves together instead of drifting off one by one.
Once you are out, talk to both women, not only the one you like. a dating program's advice on meeting women with friends is blunt on this. Ignoring her friend is a terrible idea, because no loyal friend lets her go off with a man who will not acknowledge her.
Then, if you and one of them clicked, follow up with her afterwards. dating advice uses group dates exactly this way: they get you face time sooner, and a 1-on-1 date comes after. Double Date is a strong way to get that first evening on the calendar.
Written by Matthew Stevens, Co-Founder & Head Coach. More than half a decade coaching men across the US and worldwide.
Everything here comes out of real coaching work: the approaches, dates, texts and profiles we go through with the men we coach.