Tinder & Their New Verified Profiles Will Help You Get Dates With Celebrities — Maybe

Tinder is making it easier for celebrities to find “love” online. The popular dating app announced via its blog that it will be introducing verified profiles for “notable public figures, celebrities, and athletes,” Mashable reports.

Just like Twitter and Facebook, Tinder will be adding blue check-marks to celebrity profiles. Tinder’s management says that it’s all in an effort to help these public figures to use the app more efficiently.

Using Tinder can be really difficult for celebrities, star-athletes, and other public figures. Tinder is linked to to users’ Facebook profiles, and most celebrities often use Facebook under a false name. This all means that Tinder’s famous users weren’t able to use their real identity on the app.

“This will allow celebrities to enter Tinder in a different way,” Tinder CEO Sean Rad told the Hollywood Reporter in an interview last year.

With the verified profiles, though, celebrities can use the app with their real names and not worry about other users not believing that the profiles are real.

This new Tinder update is just the latest in series of Tinder changes that have been added to profiles recently. In a large-scale redesign in April, the dating app introduced Instagram support, 2nd degree connections, and an expanded interests section.

Tinder also released its premium service, called Tinder Plus. With this service, users have bonus features like unlimited swipes, the undo function, as well the ability to change your location to anywhere in the world.

Tinder may be experiencing widespread popularity, but the app has come under severe criticism from several quarters. The service was slammed for ageism because of its pricing system that charges users over 30 more for the service than younger users on Tinder. The dating app has also been linked to a rise in STD infection rates, as well.

According to a new health report from the Rhode Island Department of Health, the state saw a huge increase in the total number of new STD cases, a phenomenon that may very well be because of the increasing popularity of dating apps.

Here’s the part of the report that talks about the link between STDs and dating apps like Tinder.

“The recent uptick in STDs in Rhode Island follows a national trend. The increase has been attributed to better testing by providers and to high-risk behaviors that have become more common in recent years. High-risk behaviors include using social media to arrange casual and often anonymous sexual encounters, having sex without a condom, having multiple sex partners, and having sex while under the influence of drugs or alcohol.”

Tinder, first launched in 2012, is known for its high-profile users like Olympian Jamie Anderson. It was widely used widely throughout the Olympic Village in Sochi during the Winter Games.

[Photos courtesy Mashable]