Tinder is making it easier to avoid old flings (and the awkward feelings that inevitably follow). Using its newly introduced Block Contacts feature, you can prevent people you have in your phone’s address book from showing up when you go to swipe. Anyone you add to the app’s internal blocklist won’t see you on the platform, nor will you see them. You can even block contacts that haven’t joined Tinder yet, preventing future surprises. If you want to check out the feature, it’s accessible through the profile settings menu.
Users can either upload their full contacts list to Tinder or add them individually. Tinder says it won’t store everyone’s contacts only the ones they’ve chosen to block and people can unblock or disconnect their contacts list at any time. Blocked contacts won’t be notified they’ve been blocked. Of course, there’s no easy way of knowing if an ex or other undateworthy person even has a Tinder account; it’s more of a preventative measure. And if a blocked individual has since changed their phone number and joins Tinder, their account could still surface.
People have wanted to avoid the possibility of an awkward digital run-in forever, and this might, finally, give them a fighting chance at doing so. However, it also feels years late. I don’t know why Tinder took so long to launch this, but hopefully new users won’t have to know the misery of running into an ex on Tinder ever again.
