What Is Speed Date on Tinder?

Speed Date is a live 1-on-1 video feature on Tinder, made up of back-to-back short sessions with different people. If you and the other person both choose to extend, you can keep interacting after the session ends. You join from the Events tab on Android and iOS in select markets, it runs on a web app outside Tinder.com, and you need to be selfie verified with an account in good standing.

A Speed Date is a string of short video conversations, one after another. Each one is live and face to face, and each one lasts only a few minutes.

At the end of a session, both of you get to choose whether to extend. If you both do, you can keep interacting after the session closes. If either of you does not, you move on to the next person. Nobody has to say no out loud, which takes a lot of the awkwardness out of it.

You find Speed Date in the Events tab, in select markets on Android and iOS. If you do not see it, it is most likely not offered where you are.

Two conditions apply. You must be selfie verified, and your account must be in good standing. If you have never done the selfie check, do it first. It also means the people you talk to have been through the same check.

Speed Date itself runs on its own web app, outside Tinder.com.

Most app conversations die in the chat. You trade a dozen lines, she gets busy, and by the weekend neither of you remembers why you were talking. Video skips that stage. Within seconds she knows how you sound, whether you smile easily and whether you can hold a conversation.

That cuts both ways, which is the point. A man who is relaxed and warm on camera gets a big advantage that no written line can give him. A man who hides behind clever texts gets found out fast. If you are the first kind, Speed Date suits you. If you are the second kind, it is exactly the practice you need.

A short video call also screens for you. You see whether she looks like her photos, whether the conversation is easy and whether she is actually keen. That saves you from first dates that were never going to work.

Treat the few minutes before a session like getting ready for a date. Find a quiet room where nobody will walk in behind you. Face a window or a lamp, so the light falls on your face rather than behind your head.

Prop the phone at eye level instead of holding it low. A camera below your chin makes every man look like he is peering down at her. Look at the camera when you talk, not at the screen.

Check what is behind you. A made bed and a clear wall say more good things about you than any line you will think of. A pile of laundry says the opposite. Then put on a shirt you would actually wear on a first date. She cannot see your shoes, but she can see whether you made an effort.

Do not waste the opening on "So, how's your day going?" You have a few minutes, and she has had that question from everyone.

Start with energy and something to answer. Comment on something you can see behind her, make a light guess about her, or ask a question with a bit of play in it. "You look like you've already done three of these and hated two. Be honest." It is friendly and a little playful, and it gives her something to push back on.

Extend when the conversation was easy and you would like more of it. Do not extend out of politeness, and do not extend with everyone just to keep your options open. You both have to choose it, so a mutual extend actually means something.

If she does not extend, let it go. Short sessions are built for quick calls in both directions. The next conversation starts in a moment, and dwelling on the last one makes you worse at it.

A good session is not the finish line. It is the best possible start to a first date, because she has already seen you, heard you and enjoyed talking to you.

So once you are connected, do not drift back into days of polite chat. Refer to something from the call, suggest a specific plan with a place and a day, and keep the message short. A woman who liked you on camera a few hours ago is far easier to ask out than one who only knows your photos. Use that while it is warm.