Facebook is now testing a Tinder-like feature

The social media giant Facebook is testing a Tinder-like feature on its messenger platform.

The feature lets user connect with their friends by sending them a request on messenger. The request, if acceded to from the other side, will then make a connection between the two. Tinder, which is a famous online dating website, also runs on a similar feature. The only difference appears to be that on Tinder, the request is sent to strangers while on Messenger, you can only connect to your Facebook friends.

The feature, which has currently been rolled out to selected users for testing purposes, has been pilot-run by Jacob Dubé, a writer at Motherboard. The writer was even able to get a statement from Facebook on this feature. The story quotes, “People often use Facebook to make plans with their friends. So, we’re running a very small test in the Facebook app to make that easier.”

Image — Via Jacob Dubé

Facebook Messenger first shows a list of your Facebook friends randomly (or maybe on the basis of some algorithm) that you’d most probably want to link up with. When the link is opened, a page with photos of selected Facebook friends appears which asks if you: “Want to meet up with [the name of your friend here] this week?” You can then send them a request to “connect”, the receiver will then have the option to either respond with a Yes or a No Thank you. If the other side responds with a Yes, only then the sender would get a notification.

According to some reports, the feature is currently available to a selected audience in Canada and New Zealand. Considering the Beta-run goes well, it wouldn’t be so long before the feature is made available to rest of the users worldwide.

Featured Image — Via NY Post