For the next two weeks, there’ll be more to do on Sunday nights than just dreading the coming work week. Tinder brings back its well-received Swipe Night experience with a new storyline and a fresh cast of characters, this time as a whodunnit presented in three installments. The series follows a group of friends on a birthday weekend getaway who chance upon a most gruesome find, and all of a sudden everyone is a suspect.
Titled “Killer Weekend”, the interactive choose-your-own-adventure takes users beyond the classic Tinder swiping, and into a low-pressure way to break the ice with potential matches.
The choice of a whodunnit was obvious given the popularity of true crime content, explains Kyle Miller, Tinder’s VP of Product. That’s why the app sought to create conversation among members through the shared experience of a mystery. Plus, it helps that so many people’s Tinder profiles say they’re looking for a ‘partner-in-crime’, he adds.
How it works
The series launches across 25 global markets, localised in terms of language. Each episode runs about 12 minutes long, and the series is located at the newly launched Tinder Explore venue.
By making a series of choices throughout each episode, members wind up on different paths within the experience. At the end of each week, participants get to name their top suspect. Their responses get them paired in Fast Chat with participants who named different suspects, to work through the case together and solve the mystery. Along the way, haptic feedback from the smartphone app immerses users in the story as a first-person character.
Gen Z consumers don’t want just a linear experience, Miller says. This explains the platform’s focus on delivering variety in content and format, creating an increasingly personalised app experience. And given that Swipe Night runs on the in-house branching narrative software, not everyone will experience the same process, which gives flexibility to adapt the ending for each user.
About 20 million users took part in the first Swipe Night in 2019, and they saw a 26 percent increase in matches compared to an average Sunday night. “Swipe Night was our first big experiment to see if members wanted to do something more than swipe, and the answer was resoundingly ‘yes’,” Miller adds.
Watch the trailer for Tinder’s Swipe Night: Killer Weekend below.
Swipe Night: Killer Weekend is available globally on Nov 7 at 6pm on Tinder Explore.
