How Was The ‘Swipe Right’ Technology Created? Tinder Founder Explains

This question originally appeared on Quora. Answer by Jonathan Badeen.

For Tinder’s entire interface and design, we wanted to think about what would inspire people to connect by trusting their instincts. That’s reflected in the Swipe Right - a simple motion that helps users quickly select potential matches. The Swipe wasn’t part of the first Tinder iteration. During development, we had a card-stack interface (similar to what users to see today) but with buttons instead of a swipe. This struck us as clunky, but we weren’t sure how to fix it.

One morning, I was wiping the fog away from my bathroom mirror after a shower, and the swiping motion hit me as the easiest and most natural way for users to navigate from one potential match to another.