Dating is all about managing your options. You’re choosing whom to go out with, what to wear, what to do, how far you’re willing to go, what kind of relationship you’re looking for… But underneath it all, is choice. When you don’t feel like you have any choice, well, it’s hard to go on.
This is true in the interpersonal part of things, but now that there is such a large technological element to our social interactions (checking in, tweeting, Instagram selfies, etc), it should be true of that aspect of things, as well. But, given this mobile-heavy technological scene, most of the social apps that make our lives so much easier aren’t available for anything other than mobile platforms.
And granted, you usually always have your phone on you, even when you’re out on the town, but why should you be forced out of options in this part of things? Why should you be limited to using a smartphone. That’s why I’ve developed this Tinder for PC guide walking you through how to download the app on your computer.
Like a lot of social apps, there’s this expectation that you already know everything about it. If you ask someone how to manage a particular facet of these apps, suddenly you look like someone who doesn’t get it and doesn’t belong. With that in mind, I know you may have a lot of options when it comes to running Tinder, I’ll walk you through the download, installation, and setup process and give you tips on how to run Tinder for Mac. However, there are a few caveats to keep in mind that I’ll also address below.
Keep in mind that the app was only developed for use on an iPhone or Android so you may find that there are some differences in using the app on a PC. I’ll outline some of those below and alternatives to swiping right or left, for instance.
“I love a man with a great sense of humor and who is intelligent – a man who has a great smile. He has to make me laugh. I like a man who is very ambitious and driven and who has a good heart and makes me feel safe. I like a man who is very strong and independent and confident – that is very cute – but at the same time, he’s very kind to people.” – Nicole Scherzinger
Why Use Tinder for PC?
You may still be questioning why you’d want to use Tinder for PC when you’ve got your iPhone or Android right there and it’s easily accessible. Well, the short answer is, it’s a different experience, and what kind of Tinder user would you be if you were afraid of different experiences? Even though there are some downsides to what I’m about to describe, there are plenty of upsides that will make you anxious to get on board.
One big upside is that you’re using a larger screen so every potential Tinder match you can view the person at the full screen resolution of your computer without having to squint on your iPhone to see what someone’s face looks like. It’s very useful if the person has a small photo or if their face is not clearly displayed. And then there are the group shots (why do people use group shots as their profile pictures?), when you have to hunt among a sea of faces to find the specific Waldo you’re being asked about.
Another great advantage is you can use Tinder when you’re at work or sitting at your desk on your computer. Sometimes when I get home I put my phone in the bedroom and don’t want to get up and get it when I have a Tinder match. Or else, it’s on a charger and I don’t feel like being tethered to the wall with the two inch charging cable that most phones come with. Meanwhile, perhaps I’m already working on my computer. I’d like to just be able to login using my computer and from there see the match. Basically, you have the choice to use your iPhone but you’re not limited. That means more options for you and more control over how you interact with Tinder.
Did you every try to lookup a Tinder profile on Facebook just to see if it’s real or if you could find the person. This is especially likely if you live in a small town where you can narrow in your Facebook search and likely find the person. This is much easier to do when you’re on a computer so you can have multiple browser tabs open looking up more information about a Tinder girl, especially since most mobile websites (especially of social media websites) force you to use their app from a mobile device. Multitasking stinks on iPhones and Androids, but it’s a breeze on a computer.
How To Get Tinder For PC
You’d be surprised how easy it is to get Tinder on your computer, and best of all, it is completely free. Sounds too good to be true? Like, “If this works so well, how come everybody isn’t doing it?” Well, it comes down once again to that question of asking questions. People are using their apps to start conversations, but nobody’s really having a conversation about how they use their apps. As a result, people like you are really missing out on these tricks to get maximum functionality out of these useful applications. Read below and I’ll walk you through the steps and a few tips and tricks to make the app run better on your PC.
Note, that you will need a Google account and sign up for Google Play. This guide uses an Android emulator to make it possible to run the Tinder apk file on your computer. However, to do this you will need access to Google Play to be able to download the app and to run it. You can also just sign up after opening up the emulator but it’s a bit more cumbersome than just doing it on your browser. While Tinder is also available on iPhones, I’ve not found a reliable means of emulating iOS that I’m entirely happy with. If you’ve found something that works for you, let us know about it in the comments.
TIP: Make sure your graphics card driver is fully up to date or else you may find that the emulator has issues with using the graphics card. This also depends on which emulator you use but if you go with the emulator below you shouldn’t have any issues connecting.
Simply follow these steps to get everything setup and working. I’ve chosen to feature Andyroid in this guide simply because I’ve had the best luck with it. I have used BlueStacks and YouWave and both have given me a lot of problems. They often don’t work with graphics cards or are slow and buggy with a lot of crashes.
- Head over to Andyroid and download their Android emulator. Simply click on the download button and when it’s finished downloading onto your computer double click it to install.
- Next, launch Andyroid and follow the installation instructions. You will need to sign in to Google Play and allow access to your Google Play account by Andyroid. This will give you the option to sync your apps from one device to another and also to download new apps.
- Click on the search icon at the top left and search for “Tinder for PC” to get the app.
- Download Tinder and it will go straight to your emulator desktop where you can click it to open.
- Now, you will need to sign in to Tinder with your Facebook account same as you would if you were logging into Tinder on your iPhone or Android.
- After signing in you should see the same screen and everything as you would on your smartphone and you’re ready to start using Tinder!
TIP: You will first notice that one of the main interaction you have with Tinder is to swipe left or right depending on whether you want to be matched with someone. Of course you won’t be able to swipe when you’re using a computer. However, you will notice a little heart or X below the images so you can just click the heart for yes or X for no instead of swiping. Swiping on a trackpad unfortunately doesn’t work as of now.
Tinder On Computer Settings
Now that we’ve gotten you all setup and ready to use Tinder on your computer let’s chat a bit more about the different features and settings you can use on your computer.
As you can see below are some of the settings you can change directly in the Andy app.
1. Of course you can change whether you’re a male or female. I’m not sure why you would ever want to change this unless the app mistakenly said you were the wrong gender based on your Facebook settings.
2. Next, you can choose whether to rate men, women, or both men and women by clicking the box. This will change the type of person you see.
3. A setting I find myself changing regularly is the Limit Search To setting. Depending on where you are and how many people are on the app you may find that you run out of women or men to rate. This is where the search range comes in handy. You can change it from 1 mile to 100 miles if you’re in a city versus the country. This is also cool if you want to try to find someone within your neighborhood.
4. Next setting dictates what age range of women or men you want to see. This may change as you get older or if your preferences in dating age changes.
5. The next setting allows you to change the distance in miles versus kilometers. A trick is if you want to increase the distance more than 100km, switch to miles. Alternatively, if you want to switch to less than a mile switch to 1km.
6. Lastly, you can turn on vibrate and sound notifications to tell you if you have a match with someone else. If you’re using the emulator this will only work as long as you have the emulator turned on.
How To Get Tinder For Mac
If you’re more of a Mac kind of guy you’re in luck, you can get Tinder for Mac just as easily as you can with a PC. Andyroid had a beta Mac version for a long time and recently just released their full version that you can use on a Mac.
There is no big difference in functionality, you just head over to Andyroid and click on the download button. From there, follow all of the same steps as before to install, setup, download Tinder, and login to your account.
Keep in mind that you will still need a Google Play account even though you are on a Mac and using the emulator on your Mac. This is because it’s still an Android emulator and needs to run the Google Play apk files. Currently, there is no iOS emulator that works well at all so we’re stuck with using the Android emulator.
You’ll also be happy to hear that this works for any version of OS X for Macs and will work no matter if you’re using a Macbook Air, Macbook Pro, or iMac. As before you will have the same settings as you would on a PC and it will look just the same. Make sure that your graphics card is up to date on your Mac as well.
That wraps up this guide and hopefully gave you some good details how to get Tinder on your computer and on your Mac. Let us know if you found another way to get Tinder that we didn’t cover in this article, it would be interesting to see how other people tackle this problem.
Also, let’s hope Tinder just decides to create their own version that can be run online and we won’t have to worry about these issues anymore and we’ll get full functionality on our laptop or desktop.
Please comment below and share this article with your friends on Facebook or Twitter so everyone can enjoy this trick!
