--- title: "Tinder Now Letting Rizzless Sad Sacks Pay $500/Month to Message People Without Even Matching" description: "If you get a message from someone you never matched with on Tinder, it's not a glitch — it's the app's expensive new subscription plan." date: "2023-09-25" modified: "2023-09-25" authors: - name: "Noor Al-Sibai" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/nooralsibai" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/tinder-select-rizzless" categories: - "Future Society" tags: - "dating apps" - "online dating" - "the digest" - "tinder" --- # Tinder Now Letting Rizzless Sad Sacks Pay $500/Month to Message People Without Even Matching ![If you get a message from someone you never matched with on Tinder, it's not a glitch — it's the app's expensive new subscription plan.]() *A young guy is leaning in to kiss a girl be she is frowning and making a hand gesture to stop him. They are wearing casual clothes. \Image: Getty Images\* ## Sad! If you get a message from someone you never matched with on Tinder, it's not a glitch — it's part of the app's expensive new subscription plan that it [teased earlier this year](), which allows "power users" to send unsolicited messages to non-matches for the small fee of $499 per month. As [*Bloomberg* reports](), the new VIP subscription tier, the highest of the company's new "Tinder Select" service, does come with an important caveat: it will only be offered to fewer than one percent of the app's user base, and even they'll have to apply in addition to paying the enormous subscription cost. "We know that there is a subset of highly engaged and active users who prioritize more effective and efficient ways to find connections," Tinder's chief product officer, Mark Van Ryswyk, told *Bloomberg.* "And so we engaged in extensive tests and feedback with this audience over the past several months to develop a completely new offering." Regardless of how Tinder tries to spin the new feature — which, it should be noted, only allows the rich and rizzless to send non-match messages twice a week — it's a very sad set of circumstances, even in the [bleak landscape]() of dating apps. ## Keep It Competitive That landscape, in fact, is largely populated by apps owned by Tinder's parent company: as *Bloomberg* notes, Match Group Inc. not only owns the popular swiping app, but also Match.com, OKCupid, Hinge, and The League. The new "Tinder Select" subscription, which will offer three tiers starting at $24.99 per month, was purportedly created in part to help the app compete with other expensive services. Indeed, *Bloomberg* notes that earlier this year, Match Group CEO Bernard Kim referred to Tinder's subscriptions as "low-hanging fruit" meant to compete with other, pricier services, though that was before this $6,000-per-year tier dropped. While this "new offering" may seem like a blatant cash grab to the average person, JP Morgan Chase & Co seemed pretty impressed, as the report notes, naming Match Group's stock one of its top picks and upping its target price to boot. "We expect Tinder payer trends to improve as focus shifts from price optimizations to product & engagement," a JPMorgan analysis viewed by *Bloomberg* read. "We believe the best (& perhaps only) way to turn the tide in online dating sentiment is for Tinder payers to stabilize & ultimately return to growth." The money men, it seems, have spoken — and they really want to let people with no game message randos. **More on Tinder:** [*Cursed Apps Use AI to Tell You What to Say on Tinder*]() ## Author At Futurism, I've often been drawn to unpacking the narratives that underlie technological, scientific and medical progress, with a special interest in areas of conflict and ambiguity that end up setting agendas and steering the fates of both elites and the hoi polloi. I'm a committed generalist, but I often find myself returning to work involving NASA and the private space sector, the effects of AI on media and society, and the mechanics of the pharmaceutical industry, with a specific focus on the spread of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. Prior to Futurism, I worked for publications ranging from Media Matters and Truthdig to Raw Story and Bustle. I'm also the author of "Myspace Scene Queens," a 2024 title in Instar Books' acclaimed "Remember the Internet" series. My work at Futurism has been cited by outlets including the New Yorker, Slate, Nieman Lab, the Verge, the MIT Technology Review, the Sunday Times, and the Daily Beast. I grew up in North Carolina, attended the University of North Carolina at Asheville, and now live in Brooklyn, New York. In my free time, I'm an avid reader and music fan; you can probably find me at a local poetry reading, concert, underground rave, or DJ set. I'm the proud parent of an ineffable orange cat named Mee-Mow. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()