Tinder reveals trailer for dating app's first scripted series

The popular dating app Tinder has released the trailer for its first scripted series, Swipe Night.

The interactive series is considered a first-of-its-kind effort by a dating app to use scripted entertainment to help singles find better matches.

The “micro series” is an end-of-the-world scenario where users have to make choices about how they’d spend the last few hours of their lives. In the trailer above, for instance, at one point the user has to decide whether to help a stranger or fend for themselves. As the story unfolds, users will have seven seconds to swipe right or left to make critical moral decisions — and cannot change their minds. (Why, it’s like taking selfies of your soul!)

The choices will be added to members’ profiles after playing, showing which decisions potential matches did — or did not — make.

Swipe Night might also be the first original series from a major corporation ever deliberately shot in portrait mode.

The project is from director Karena Evans (several Drake music videos), writers Nicole Delaney (Big Mouth) and Brandon Zuck (Insecure), and stars Angela Wong Carbone (Chinatown Horror Story), Jordan Christian Hearn (Inherent Vice), and Shea Gabor. The move is the latest usage of viewer-driven narrative content, which Netflix broke out into the mainstream with its five-hour Bandersnatch film last December.

“Seven years ago, Tinder revolutionized the way we meet with the invention of its Swipe feature. Now, with Swipe Night, we’re proud to be pushing the envelope again, by letting people connect in ways they can’t anywhere else,” said CEO Elie Seidman. The level of innovation, interactivity and immersiveness in the Swipe Night adventure is unprecedented in the dating space, and we’re excited to continue experimenting with new ways to connect on the Tinder app.”

“More than half of Tinder members are Gen Z, and we want to meet the needs of our ever-evolving community,” added Ravi Mehta, Tinder’s Chief Product Officer. “We know Gen Z speaks in content, so we intentionally built an experience that is native to how they interact. Dating is all about connection and conversation, and Swipe Night felt like a way to take that to the next level. Our hope is that it will encourage new, organic conversations based on a shared content experience.”

The series launches Sunday at 6 p.m. in users’ respective time zones. Tinder will release four episodes, each about five minutes long, every Sunday this month.

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