Tinder Acquires Tappy, A Snapchat Rival

Matchmaking mobile app Tinder has purchased Namesake, the makers of Snapchat photo messaging rival Tappy. The acquisition is Tinder's first and stands to help the company improve communication between matched-up users.

Tappy, which has been around only since July, lets users send messages and pictures that disappear after 24 hours, similar to Snapchat, where messages sent to a friend vanish after being viewed. Terms of the deal, which was reported by TechCrunch, were not disclosed, but Tappy will be shutting down.

Los Angeles-based Tinder did not say how it will use the talent acquired from Namesake, but it will likely use their expertise to improve its Tinder Moments feature, which lets users post pictures that are viewable by others they've matched up with for 24 hours. The talent from Tappy also may be used to add direct photo messaging, a feature that is surprisingly still absent from Tinder.

“We’re very good at connecting people, but there’s this ‘What happens after that?’ moment that we want to improve,” Tinder CEO Sean Rad told TechCrunch. “We not only want to get better at the way we use criteria to connect people, but we want to broaden the reasons for connecting in the first place. The Tappy team will help us tackle both fronts, the prematch experience of creating that first connection and the postmatch experience of communicating with that person.”