Tindly Labs

Research to help you find love.

When we say Tindly is designed to be deleted, we mean it. Labs is where AI meets relationship science.

The Focus

Getting dating down to a science.

The Labs team combines AI and relationship science to understand what makes a Tindly match successful, so they can make your next first date your last first date.

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Research Areas

What the team researches.

We study the dating journey from download to date to deletion — fine-tuning every element that matters.

First Impressions

What makes profiles successful. Photo themes, prompt answers, and the values they communicate.

Better Matches

Using AI to learn your type from your likes and behavior. Personalizing who you see — not just showing more people.

Building Connections

How messaging and video calling help you assess chemistry before meeting in person.

Dating Burnout

What causes the delete-reinstall cycle and how to design against it.

You

What works for one person won't work for everyone. AI-driven custom insights for your breakthrough moment.

Key Findings

Numbers that changed the product.

8likes/day

The magic number. More free likes made matches worse. Fewer made people pay. Eight is optimal.

92%

of users who match through Most Compatible go on a second date.

3x

Specific likes (photo/prompt) generate 3x more responses than generic profile likes.

40%

Reduction in burnout when we introduced pacing features and intent signals.

The Team

Meet your experts.

A multidisciplinary team answering the biggest questions about dating.

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Dr. Sarah Chen

Director of Research

Relationship science, online dating & well-being

PhD Human Development, Northwestern

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Dr. Marcus Webb

Senior UX Researcher

Belonging, emotion, romantic relationships

PhD Social Psychology, published in NEJM

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Priya Sharma

Lead Relationship Scientist

Behavioral science → practical dating advice

Psychology, Harvard. Author & dating coach

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Alex Rivera

Data Analyst, BI

Conversation dynamics & success patterns

BS Biomedical Engineering, Duke

Methodology

How we do the research.

We bridge relationship science, behavioral analysis, UX research, and AI.

Literature Review

Building on decades of relationship science and psychology research.

User Surveys

Thousands of daters sharing their experiences, preferences, and outcomes.

Controlled Experiments

A/B tests and randomized studies to prove cause-and-effect.

Behavioral Analytics

AI models analyzing aggregate patterns from millions of interactions on the platform.

From Insight to Feature

Research pipeline.

01

Question

Identify a friction point in the dating journey.

02

Research

Design studies to understand root causes.

03

Insight

Extract actionable findings from data.

04

Prototype

Build and test solutions with real users.

05

Ship

Launch features that measurably improve outcomes.

Publications

Published research.

The Psychology of Profile Building: How Self-Presentation Affects Match Quality

Journal of Social & Personal Relationships

2025

Reducing Dating Burnout Through Intentional Design Patterns

Psychological Science

2024

Message Length and Response Rates: An Analysis of 2M Conversations

Current Directions in Psychological Science

2024

The 8-Like Effect: How Constraints Improve Decision Quality in Dating

Emotion

2023

Labs in the headlines

The New York TimesThe Washington PostTIMENBC NewsCBS NewsGQThe Atlantic

Want to join the lab?

We're hiring AI researchers, data scientists, and behavioral analysts.