Imagine this: you’ve downloaded a dating app for the first time, dipping your toes into seemingly perilous waters, filling in the prompts one by one. Finally, after a painstaking amount of time curating your profile to seem like the most compelling and charming individual on the app, you receive a notification from your nosy aunt. By some disastrous means, she has seen the six deliciously confident selfies you’ve framed your profile with; only she doesn’t find them as intriguing as potential suitors may. Anger ensues, and panic sets in.
While this seems hyperbolic, traditional families haven’t seemed to fully catch up with modern-day dating in India. And yet, dating apps like Hinge are booming in the country. Founded in the US by Justin McLeod in 2012, India was one of the first four countries Hinge expanded to in 2014, alongside UK, Australia, and Canada. Now, the app has rolled out a special set of new features specifically for the Indian market.
With India being Hinge’s second-largest country by downloads, Chief Executive Officer Jackie Jantos emphasizes the wish to adapt the app to the needs of singles of India. “We’re excited to help more people in India find meaningful relationships in a way that feels right for their lives,” she says in the official Hinge newsletter.
Using a Nobel-Prize-winning algorithm, Hinge works towards improving quality, not quantity. These new features emphasize just that. The most intriguing is the ‘Block List’, which works to avoid a scenario akin to the one described in the introduction. Hinge will now allow users to choose contacts to block: a toxic ex, a snoopy neighbour, or a too-close-for-comfort colleague.
More interesting still, new users joining Hinge will enter through a waitlist, designed to remind downloaders to pause and create their profile with intention. Shn Juay, the Chief Executive of US matchmaking app Coffee Meets Bagel, explains how Asian users are more likely to swipe right if they can indicate time and effort put into the profile, “If you leave gaps, it is seen as disrespectful.” Other new features specifically for the Indian market include Face Check and Screenshot Protection.
The introduction of these features can be attributed to India’s fast-growing consumer base for such apps. According to Grand View Research, the Indian online dating app market is projected to generate a revenue of USD 1.02 billion by 2030, with Match Group Inc (owner of Hinge, Tinder, and other popular dating apps) as one of the top contributors.
The idea of a dating app curating its features to be successful in a particular market isn’t new. French matchmaking app Happn has been seen to have ‘reinvented itself’ to maintain appeal in the Asian market, upon acquisition by a Chinese social networking company in 2025. Juay also speaks to the growing independence of Asian users, and the need to maintain the balance between making space for local cultural norms and expanding to fill the gap that a declining reliance on traditional matrimony services have left behind. “Women are no longer relying on family and friends to introduce them to their future partners”, she says.
However, the noble intentions of dating apps to help one find love grow cloudy when faced with an Indian market defined until too recently as conservative. These new features, especially targeting new users from Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities, take into account the stigma independent women face in the country. Up until now, most of the download traffic comes from cities such as Delhi and Mumbai. Arpita, a 22-year-old communications professional who spent most of her life in Durgapur, describes users facing notoriety among smaller, interconnected communities. “The whole ‘aunties would talk in the locality’ thing is extremely real,” she says.
This pushback does not only apply to online dating. Indian hotel chain OYO, which was popularized on social media as a safe haven for unmarried couples, closed its doors to them in 2025 following dissent from civil society groups.
On the other hand, Zara, a 22-year-old creative strategist from Bengaluru, says being ‘on the apps’ is very normal. Having been a part of the online dating culture on and off from the age of 18, she hasn’t faced much stigma from her peers, stating the only thing that might discourage her from partaking is a few select people coming across her profile. Therefore, these new features help to create an environment wherein Indians can let their interest take them on or off the apps, rather than societal norms.
For the younger generations living in the metropolitan cities of India, this means wading through potential love interests or casual partners has become less daunting and more pleasurable, signifying a clear cultural shift. This extends to LGBTQ+ relationships as well, as Hinge, Bumble, and other dating apps in India offer the option to choose from a range of gender and sexuality orientations. According to a 2019 report, 1 in 3 LGBTQ+ Indians are finding love through dating apps. Many young Indians also note that they came out on dating apps like Tinder before doing so in real life. The screen offers a level of comfort that in-person interactions often can’t, with Hinge’s new features securing this further.
Hinge’s competitors are aplenty, working with similar core principles of curation and exclusivity. Raya is one such membership-based app, where celebrities and members of the glitterati seem to flit about, unencumbered by the rest of the dating-curious population. The League is another such app. Hinge’s waitlist feature seems to attempt a similar USP, although its success is yet to be gauged.
So what do these new features mean? It means that Hinge is taking notice of its third-largest user base in a single country, and designing features unique to its makeup. It signifies a greater change, one where India’s consumer base is not seen as a problem to be solved, but a standard to uphold. Hinge demonstrates allegiance to its values of connection and intimacy through the clear intention behind these updates. What is yet to be seen is how successful this intention will prove to be.
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