Tinder is one of the most popular dating apps available. Like similar apps, Tinder offers a convenient platform for those who want to make connections with people in their local area.
Whether you just want to widen your search or youre someone who travels a lot, changing your Tinder location can be very convenient. If you need to change your location on Tinder, keep reading. In this article, Ill show you how to fake your location so that Tinder thinks youre somewhere other than where you really are.
How Tinder Tracks Your Location
Tinder works by pulling your location from your phones GPS service. The app then looks for potential matches for you within the search radius that you specify, which can be anywhere from 1 to 100 miles.
So if the perfect someone happens to be 101 miles away, youre pretty much out of luck, unless you persuade Tinder that youre actually somewhere different than what your phone says.
Fortunately, if you do find yourself needing to change your Tinder location, you can do so by utilizing features found in the app itself.
Change your location with Tinder Plus
The simplest and most straightforward way to change your location is to be a Tinder Plus or Tinder Gold subscriber. Premium customers are allowed to change their location whenever they want, and they get some side benefits from that ability as well.
Tinder Plus costs $9.99 a month, and Tinder Gold costs even more, so the ability to change locations at will doesnt come free. (You might want to check out our article on the various benefits and costs of the different levels of Tinder.)
The relocation feature is called Tinder Passport and it allows you to change your location in the app as many times as you want to. You can only swipe in one city at any given time, but you can set up to four default locations, allowing you to switch back and forth quickly between a set of places. Whenever you enter the fifth location, Tinder will delete the oldest location you had previously set.
The good news for premium users is that when you set your location to a new place, you get the coveted newbie boost, which is an excellent way to get more matches! This can be a significant benefit to your visibility and is a largely unknown bonus to using Passport.
Using Passport is simple. Just go into the app settings, and look for “Discovery Settings.” Tap on the bar that says “Swiping in” (if you use Android) or “Location” (for iOS users), and it will bring up the location selection screen. You can then select an existing location by tapping on it, or tap “Add a new location” and the map will open up.
Enter the location where you actually want to “be,” and your Tinder card stack will reset to that location. Note that it may take a little while for new potential matches to show up in your feed.
Also, bear in mind that while you are swiping in the new Passport location, your distance is going to show up to those matches as being whatever the distance is between your Passport location and where you actually physically are, so you might want to add something to your bio to explain why people are matching with you even though youre 4,284 miles away.
Can You Fake Your Location on Tinder?
While Tinder does offer an official way to change your location, some users may not want to shell out extra cash for the feature.
In this case, there are a few unofficial methods you can take advantage of to fake your location on Tinder. Keep in mind that these methods arent completely foolproof. Tinder makes it a point to try and prevent people from spoofing their location. That being said, the following methods are generally reliable ways to fake your location while using Tinder.
Fake Your Location on Android
Because of the accessibility of the GPS information on an Android phone, you can fairly easily spoof your location on Tinder by using a third-party app.
- for Android.
- Open the Settings menu on your Android device.
- Navigate to Developer Options.
- Turn Developer Options on.
- If your phone has a toggle for Allow mock locations, set it to on.
- Tap on Select mock location app.
- Select your fake GPS app.
- Go back to Settings and then Location.
- Select Location Mode and change it to Device only (GPS only).
Tinder seems to be steadily working to eliminate this trick with every new version of the app they release, so if this doesnt work, you may have to try using another fake GPS app or a different method entirely.
Fake Your Location on iOS
Faking your location on an iPhone is significantly trickier because Apple really doesnt want you dating a Elite to do it. There are a number of apps that claim to be able to fake out your GPS without jailbreaking the phone. One that does appear to work is iTools from ThinkSky.
iTools will let you change your location three times for free in the trial version; after that, you have to pay to use the program. It costs $ or more depending on what level of license you want and how many devices you want to install it on. iTools also only works on iOS versions 12 and under.
Another option is to jailbreak your iPhone. We have an article reviewing the pros and cons of this approach. Jailbreaking is risky and its not for the cautious or inexperienced user; you can very easily turn your iPhone into a very expensive, very ineffective paperweight. Explaining how its done is beyond the scope of this article. If you decide to proceed with jailbreaking your iPhone, be careful, and get expert help with the process.
Final Thoughts
The only by-the-books way to change your Tinder location is to cough up the cash for a subscription, which might be the best path if youre going to be traveling or moving soon.
However, if youre just looking for a day trip beyond the outer belt, give one of the location spoofing methods a try. They arent the most reliable solutions, but they can work in a pinch.