Can You Send Photos on Tinder?

To make a match on Tinder, it helps to stand out from the crowd. You’re putting a lot of work into your profile, so naturally, you want to put your best foot forward by posting your best photos. But what about within messages? Can you send pictures on Tinder? The short answer is no, but there are some ways around this.

What is Tinder?

Tinder is an online dating app that launched in 2012. It’s the most popular dating app in the United States, available in 190 countries and 56 languages, with an estimated 6 million users around the world.

How does Tinder work?

Tinder allows users to create profiles with a few photos, hobbies and a short bio. To find a match, you browse other profiles. As you browse, you indicate interest by swiping right on people you’d like to be matched with. You can skip the other profiles by swiping left.

If both people are interested, Tinder allows users to text one another in the app. You’ll have access to many popular messenger features like gifs, but you won’t be able to use your device’s camera or access your photos.

Can you send photos on Tinder?

Unlike most messenger and text apps, you can’t send photos on Tinder. Photos you share within the Tinder app must be posted to your profile, meaning they’re visible to both matches and potential matches.

Why can’t you send photos on Tinder?

It’s hard to say for sure. Tinder doesn’t address the issue anywhere in their help center, FAQ or Terms of Use, so curious daters are left to speculate. One reasonable assumption is that it keeps the focus on matchmaking and communication, while limiting users’ ability to spam matches with the sorts of photos that would violate Tinder’s Terms of Use.

How to send photos on Tinder anyway?

It can’t be done directly, but people find ways to share photos and images. Here are a few things to try.

Use a photo-sharing service

You may already have access to some of the most popular photo-sharing sites, like iCloud Photos, Amazon Photos, or Google Photos. If you don’t want to use your personal accounts to share pictures on Tinder, subscription services like Photobucket are also an option.

If your pictures are hosted on any of these sites, simply share the link in a message on Tinder.

Upload the photo to your profile

While sending a photo to one person isn’t possible, you can upload a picture to your profile and it will ultimately appear in that person’s feed. And you never know, the photo may perform so well on your profile that even more people will match with you.

The risk, of course, is that if the photos on your profile are visible to your match, they’re visible to everyone else as well. Tinder has explicit guidelines for photos within its Terms of Use, so think twice about uploading anything that a) you wouldn’t want anyone else to see, or b) may get you banned from Tinder.

Exchange numbers

If you’re ready to send this person more pictures, maybe it’s time to take the conversation off Tinder. Simply exchange your digits and move to text or WhatsApp. Note that some dating experts recommend scheduling a date before leaving the app so the match doesn’t fizzle.

Once you’ve done that, it’s better to move your communications to text or a different messenger app. Remember, Tinder is a tool for finding matches and potentially arranging dates. Texting or messaging, however, is a more personal form of communication. It shows that as long as things are going well, you value the person enough to give them access to you away from Tinder.

Video chat

There are plenty of reasons to want to either send or receive a photo, but a major one is to get a better sense of a match’s appearance. After all, people tend to closely curate their profile photos, and whether or not they’re fair, current representation is anyone’s guess. At worst, you could be dealing with a fake Tinder profile.

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Tinder introduced a video chat feature called Face to Face. Initially a nod to social distancing guidelines, it remains a great way to have a virtual meetup with your match. You’ll get just as good (if not better) of a sense of their looks, and you can use the feature to share interesting items like pets or book collections.

Send a gif instead

If you’re determined to send a message, but you have to stay on the Tinder app, you can always send them a gif. Maybe a cute actress winking, or a handsome actor wiggling his eyebrows suggestively? It won’t send the same message as the photo you intended, but you might win them over with humor.

To send a gif, just use the button in the lower left corner of the chat window. Tinder partnered with Giphy to provide users access, so you’ll have an extensive library to scroll through. You’ll easily find the most popular reaction gifs, but if you dig deep you may find a real gem that expresses your thoughts exactly.

Use Bitmojis

Bitmojis are customizable, cartoon-like avatars that originated in Snapchat in 2018, and can be accessed via Tinder. The characters are highly customizable, and many users find that by selecting the right clothing, hairstyles and facial expressions, their Bitmoji bear an almost uncanny likeness to themselves.

Once the avatar is created, you can find seemingly endless scenarios for the character that you can use to convey your feelings.

Conclusion

If you want to get to know your match better and exchange more photos, you’ll need to move the conversation to another app. Tinder wants you to match with a person based on their profile, chat a little, and make a date. This also helps try to keep you safe from scammers, who sometimes operate by drawing people into lengthy flirtations with no intention of ever meeting.