Tinder Wants to See Through Your Camera Roll to Suggest Potential Matches

Tinder is currently testing a new artificial intelligence (AI) feature that is designed to combat users' swipe fatigue in finding relevant matches. The feature, dubbed Chemistry, can look through the user's camera roll after gaining permission, and based on the pictures, can suggest “highly relevant profiles” every day. The Match Group-owned platform calls this feature a major pillar for 2026; however, in application, it might raise some privacy concerns. Based on how it is implemented, users may not be able to protect sensitive and private images from being processed by the company's AI.

Tinder Is Currently Testing Chemistry

The new feature was first unveiled during Match Group's third quarterly earnings call with investors. According to the prepared remarks, Chemistry was introduced as a “major pillar of Tinder's upcoming 2026 product experience.” It is an AI-powered interactive matching feature that uses multiple ways to know the user and find relevant matches for them.

Based on the company's description, it learns about the user via interactive questions and by analysing their camera roll. Match Group highlights that it will seek explicit permission from the user before it can access the camera roll. After collecting data, it is said to use deep learning to suggest “a few” highly relevant profiles each day.

The goal of this Tinder feature is to prevent swipe fatigue in users. Swipe fatigue occurs when a dating app user swipes for long durations to find a relevant match, but the surfacing profiles are not up to their preference. The company says Chemistry will drive more compatible matches and engaging conversations. It is currently live in Australia and New Zealand, and will be expanded to more countries in the months to come.

On the surface, it appears to be exactly the kind of feature that can change a user's entire experience of the app. However, based on how it is implemented, it can raise privacy concerns. If users cannot prevent the AI from scanning sensitive or private photos, then there's a risk that these photos can be leaked from Tinder's servers.

Additionally, if the company's employees can access these images or if the photos are stored on the servers indefinitely, that also increases the privacy risk. However, Tinder's safety measures will be clear only after the feature has been officially announced by the dating app.