An increasing number of first dates happened on video calls this year, with Tinder witnessing 52 per cent growth in mentions of ‘video call’ globally.

According to Tinder's ‘Year In Swipe’, Hyderabad was the chattiest video dating city in India, closely followed by Chennai and Bengaluru. However, real life hangouts did not totally go out of fashion, people also looked for connections near them for real life hangouts. Terms like ‘nearby’ and ‘close by’ have increased by 20 percent in Tinder bios globally.

Vaccination status became something of a flex on Tinder. As vaccination drives accelerated locally between February and August 2021, mentions of ‘Vaccinated’ in bios in India grew by 40x as members advocated for vaccine status as a dating essential.

Activities

Even the first dates that happened in 2021 saw Gen Z picking more interesting, unique first date activities than drinks at a restaurant. Tinder saw a 2x increase in mentions of ‘long walks’ in bios and requests for date activities from cycling to taking a pottery class in bios.

In India, “picnic in a park” and ‘a virtual movie night’ were both popular choices made by Tinder users.

While millions of emojis were used in Tinder bios, the side eye emoji saw a whopping 40 per cent increase in usage in Tinder bios globally this year. Among Indian Gen Z, black heart and smiling emoji were the next two popular emojis – highlighting the rollercoaster of a year they have had.

Further, songs like Rodgrio’s good4u and Kid Laroi & Justin Bieber’s STAY ranked as chart-toppers in Tinder bios in 2021, closely followed by Indian Punjabi favourites like AP Dhillon’s ‘Brown Munde’ and ‘Lover’ by Diljit Dosanjh.