Tinder once joked about verifying height, now it's letting users set it as a preference

A few years ago, Tinder ran an early April Fool's Day stunt in March 2019 that spectacularly backfired. The company announced a "Height Verification Badge," claiming it wanted to "bring honesty back to dating." This fake feature, complete with a promotional video, was presented so seriously that some news outlets initially reported it as real. The idea was to verify users' heights, supposedly to stop people from lying.

However, the campaign received significant criticism because many users felt Tinder was trivializing the genuine problem of dishonesty on dating platforms, a problem that can actually hurt people. For some men on Twitter (remember, this was before Musk bought it and renamed it to X), the joke hit a particularly sour note, as height can be a sensitive subject in the dating world.

Now, Tinder is actually exploring a height preference setting for real. A company spokesperson confirmed to TechCrunch that this new discovery setting is being tested globally.

This new setting will not be available to everyone, though. According to the report, only Tinder Gold and Premium subscribers included in the test group will get to use it. Importantly, Tinder has clarified that this will function as a "preference" rather than a "hard filter." This means users can indicate their desired height range, and the app's algorithm will use this information to inform recommendations, but it will not outright block profiles that do not match the preference. It is a softer approach than completely excluding people, which might lessen some potential criticism about enabling pickiness.

Tinder's VP of Comms, Phil Price Fry, told TechCrunch, "We're always listening to what matters most to our Tinder users — and testing the paid height preference is a great example of how we're building with urgency, clarity, and focus." He added, "Not every test becomes a permanent feature, but every test helps us learn how we can deliver smarter, more relevant experiences and push the category forward." TechCrunch suggests that Tinder may hope this addition encourages more women, who are often more vocal about height preferences, to subscribe to its paid tiers, as the app's user base tends to skew male.