If a date turns ugly, users will be able to trigger an alarm via the Noonight tool within the Tinder app. They’ll then be instructed to enter a code. If they don’t, they’ll receive a text from one of Noonlight’s dispatchers. If they don’t respond to that message, Noonlight will call them, and if there’s no answer, or the user confirms that they need help, Noonlight will get in touch with police.

To use the feature, daters will have to share their real-time location data with the app. Match says this information won’t be used for marketing or anything else, nor will the information be shared with Match — it’s all handled by Noonlight. Users opting in to the feature will also be able to display a badge on their dating profiles, which — the company hopes — will act as a deterrent to any bad actors on the platform.

Of course, there’s always the possibility that an alarm could be triggered by accident during a date that’s going well, but the company says that’s a risk it’s willing to take. Speaking to the Wall Street Journal, Match group chief executive Mandy Ginsberg said, “The false positives, believe me, we took them into account. If someone doesn’t respond, worst case someone shows up and knocks on the door. It’s not the worst thing in the world.”

The new feature follows a number of safety-centric tools on the platform. Last year it rolled out a traveler alert system to help protect LGBTQ users in countries that discriminate, and back in 2018 it launched a Bumble-esque “women talk first” function. However, when it comes to data security within the app itself, its reputation isn’t so solid. A major security flaw in 2018 granted account access with just a phone number, while the same year saw the revelation that user photos were not being encrypted. More recently, a study showed that Tinder — alongside a number of other dating apps — had been playing it fast and loose with sensitive customer data.

Nonetheless, any features that can make the tumultuous world of online dating safer for its users are undoubtedly a welcome move. The Noonlight feature will be free for users in the US from the end of January, with Match Group planning on rolling it out to its other dating apps in the coming months.

Match wasn’t letting paid subscribers receive emails from these shady accounts.

The FTC also accused Match of failing to properly disclose the hoops dateless users need to jump through to qualify for a free six-month subscription. Match also didn’t provide a simple way to cancel, officials said, and those that disputed charges through their banks found themselves banned.

As you might guess, Match disagreed with the FTC’s claims. In a statement, it said the agency “misrepresented” company emails and used “cherry-picked data” to make its assertions. Instead, the emails were the results of bots, spam and other perpetrators.

Whether or not that argument flies is another matter. The FTC’s argument isn’t so much that Match sent the messages intentionally as that it had different standards for spam based on whether or not you were a paid user. If regulators can show that Match was knowingly letting spammers slide, the company might be in just as much trouble as if it had sent those emails on purpose.

Match Group spokeswoman Justine Sacco characterized this as an experiment to Bloomberg, saying that the firm “constantly” tests new features and that payment options which “benefit [the users’] experience” were an example of this. We’ve asked Google for comment, although it hadn’t responded to Bloomberg‘s request as of this writing.

It’s entirely practical for Android developers to enable direct payments without using Google Play, but that typically means bypassing Google Play altogether, like Epic did with Fortnite. It’s another matter entirely to remain in the store but ditch Google’s usual requirements. Tinder may be betting that Google won’t pull such a high-profile app despite the obvious defiance.

Services like Tinder and Spotify are rebelling against app store revenue cuts for one simple reason: they want a larger slice of the pie. Google and Apple both take up to 30 percent from in-app subscriptions (15 percent after the first year), and that’s a large hit for services that often cost $10 or less per month. Developers either have to take a revenue hit for customers who subscribe through the stores or else raise prices to compensate. They’ve also argued that the revenue sharing leads to unfair competition when it involves similar services. Apple gets all of the revenue from Apple Music subscriptions at $10 per month, for instance, but Spotify only gets $7 from in-app memberships.

Tinder and other objectors are unlikely to get what they want without a fight. While third party app subscriptions aren’t vital to Google’s bottom line, they likely represent a significant amount. Sensor Tower recently estimated that Tinder alone raked in $497 million of total revenue across Android and iOS in the first half of 2019. Even if you limit that to Google’s cut, that could still be tens of millions of dollars lost from one company.

As with other lightweight apps and scaled-back operating systems like Android Go, this is really about maintaining growth that might otherwise taper off. Although Tinder is still growing at a solid pace (its paid subscribers jumped 38 percent year-over-year in early 2019), it knows those numbers won’t last forever. A Tinder Lite app would give it access to millions of people who have only basic smartphones, limited access to data or both. Even if only a fraction of those newcomers sign up, that’s a large potential expansion.

In 2016, Tinder CEO Sean Rad told Fast Co. that the Elo score — inspired by chess rankings — was based on “desirability.” Product VP Jonathan Badeen related it to Warcraft, saying “whenever you play somebody with a really high score, you end up gaining more points than if you played someone with a lower score.” In other words, if you liked a more desirable person, and they liked you back, your Elo ranking got a bump. Then, presumably, you would start to see more attractive matches.

A few years ago, the idea of an “Elo score” was a hot topic among users and media alike. And sometimes, it still is. Here’s the scoop: Elo is old news at Tinder. It’s an outdated measure and our cutting-edge technology no longer relies on it.

Unlike other dating sites, Tinder profiles are relatively sparse, so matches are largely based solely on the profile photo — attractiveness, in other words. As Tinder never revealed its secret algorithmic sauce, that led many users to wonder why they weren’t getting the types of matches they expected.

Now, the company said in a blog post, “our current system adjusts the potential matches you see each and every time your profile is Liked or Noped, and any changes to the order of your potential matches are reflected within 24 hours or so.” So in other words, it’s still based on who swipes right on you, but Tinder won’t say exactly how. It also added that its algorithms don’t store data about “whether you’re black, white magenta or blue,” nor how much money you make.

Despite the vague explanation, Tinder said “The case has been solved: Tinder matches you, using your recent activity, your preferences and your location.” In appears, then, that the changes are designed to boost engagement, given that Tinder said it rewards folks who use the app more. That, in turn, would help it boost in-app “Super Like” purchases and profile boosts — in other words, to increase revenue.