September 12, 2017
On Friday, we saw yet another rolling update from Facebook, this time encouraging users to interact with old friends and to try and discover new ones. This feature is more in-depth than the basic ‘friend suggestions’, it’s based on things you have in common, such as pages liked, events attended and places lived or worked. So, that guy you knew in finance a few years ago that you never spoke to, could be popping up in your Messenger app as a potential friend! Maybe this is Facebook feeling bad for tearing you away from your friends IRL, but I doubt it, it’s just social becoming even more social.
On top of this update some users have spotted Facebook taking it a little further! Notifications have been popping up in the Messenger platform asking users if they want to meet up with [insert friends name here] at the weekend – click no and that’s the end of it, both click yes and you’re informed that the other wants to hang out/meet up… sound familiar?
What makes the Facebook feature a little different to the functionality of Tinder, is that Facebook are reconnecting you to your current list of “friends”. If you’re anything like me, and haven’t had a Facebook cull in a few years, that “friends” list of yours is pretty much full of strangers anyway.
There’s no dating lingo as of yet, but who knows what Facebook have up their social sleeve. We already know that they don’t have any qualms about revamping what works well on other apps – one word, Stories, but Facebook has come a long way from what it was first intended to be – a social network just for university students. A few thousand updates later and it’s now turned into a multi-billion ad platform where brands can interact with yours truly! So, what’s to stop Facebook sneaking onto Tinder’s turf?
Watch out Tinder, Facebook could be coming for you!