The new dating app LinkedUp! combines the ease and addictiveness of Tinder with the professional networking platform, Linkedin. Instead of creating a dating profile by culling information from your Facebook, LinkedUp! pulls photos and basic biographic details from your Linkedin profile. In some ways this helps users get a truer sense of who a potential match is, allowing you to preview where matches are from, where they went to school, and what they do. Otherwise the app works in the same basic way as Tinder, allowing you to anonymously like or pass profiles. When two people like each other, they can instantly start chatting.With 259 million users, Linkedin offers a healthy dating pool. Among these users, LinkedUp! will undoubtedly appeal to a specific type of single person, particularly men with high status occupations and women interested in dating men in certain professions. Presumably this app will reduce the number of people who lie about their profession or income level on dating sites. Also, because this app pulls pictures from your professional profile, this will reduce the number of shirtless bro-poses and duck-face selfies that plague Tinder.
However, LinkedUp! is certainly not for everyone. Some daters may be hesitant to be matched with singles in their professional network. Many people prefer the relative anonymity of Tinder, as it allows them to separate their romantic life from their job.
Only time will tell if LinkedUp! will catch on and go viral. If nothing else, I suspect the dating app will motivate many people to beef up their professional online profile.
Download the dating app for free on your mobile device at linkedupapp.com
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