Tinder launches Tinder U for the college kids

There's a new Tinder in town. It's a feature called Tinder U, made specifically for users of the dating app who are in college. And the company is rolling it out just in time for the start of the new school year.

To set up Tinder U on an account, users must have an active .edu email address and be geolocated on their college campus. At launch, Tinder U will be available to iOS users who attend a four-year, accredited, not-for-profit school.

Tinder U functions just like regular old Tinder, with swiping and all. You can even toggle back and forth between the Tinder U feature and the original. When toggled on, users will see their school logo depicted as a badge on their profile image. Using this feature brings up college students in the same area, including students on Tinder who attend nearby universities.

Reaching out directly to college-aged students is a sensible move by Tinder’s parent company, Match Group, Inc., which recently said users between the ages of 18 and 24 make up the single largest age group on the app.

As Facebook readies its own dating feature, it’s interesting to see Tinder deploy the same strategy Facebook used, albeit in reverse order. In the early years of Facebook, users needed an .edu email address to sign up and use the service.

Tinder U is also a potential win for the future growth of the service. In addition to tens of millions of free users, Tinder has almost 3.8 million users paying a $14.99 per month subscription for a premium version of the app. If the youngest age group becomes invested early, they could very well grow up to become paying subscribers.