Tinder launches Select app for celebrities

Invitations to join an exclusive club have been sent out to a chosen few. Photo / 123RF

Invitations to join an exclusive club have been sent out to a chosen few of the most attractive and successful Tinder users.

Tinder Select is a secret members-only version of the app designed for the most famous, and most beautiful, people using the dating service.

Tinder appears to choose the individual users it wants join the elite group, which has been operating under the radar for at least the past six months.

The service is intended for "celebrities and people who do really well on Tinder," according to a source who spoke to Tech Crunch.

It's not yet clear how the selection process works, but all of the users to have been invited so far have been 'attractive' with relatively high public or social media profiles.

Users who have been selected can then nominate friends to join them, but nominated members cannot then nominate others.

This may have been to ensure that word of the feature did not spread too far, maintaining the prestige of being invited to join the Tinder Select ranks, but this strategy appears to have failed.

MailOnline has contacted Tinder for a comment.

Tinder Select works as a filter rather than a completely separate app, with users able to turn it on and off using a switch.

Changes to the appearance include a blue 'S' replacing the usual Tinder flame logo at the top of the screen.

This allows Tinder Select users to switch between viewing profiles from the regular pool of Tinder users and fellow Select accounts.

Questions about Tinder Select began to surface about six months ago, but it has taken until now for the new feature to gain mainstream attention.

Twitter user Claire Marshall, who describes herself as a 'content creator', received an invitation back in October 2016.

The LA based makeup artist turned YouTube beauty and lifestyle video blogger has almost 900,000 subscribers and her videos have received 65 million views.

She also has a wide social media presence, including an Instagram account with over 700,000 followers.

She said: "Just received an email saying I was chosen to join Tinder SELECT (which is a thing apparently) so I should celebrate..."

And a poster on Reddit noticed a change to their Tinder app, which appears to be related to the new service, at around the same time.

User _103 seemed confused by changes, asking: "Does anyone else have this 'S' at the top of the main screen? It showed up this morning and said something about 'tinder select'."

Also selected was Twitter user @guialbuquerque, a Brazilian software developer living in Amsterdam.

He has a relatively low social media profile, but he was added to the feature in September 2016 and also seemed to be surprised by his inclusion.

In a message directed to Tinder's account on Twitter, Guipster said: 'Hey guys! What is this Tinder Select thing? I'm kinda feeling special haha'

In January 2016, Tinder revealed the dating app's hidden ranking system, which is used to generate better matches.

There has been some speculation that these scores may influence who Tinder decides to add to the Select service.

Called 'Elo scores,' a term commonly used to asses the skills of chess players, the rankings are not meant to simply measure a user's attractiveness.

They are the culmination of a vote-like system to determine the types of profiles that are considered desirable on a broad level.

The system provides insight on the general desirability of certain types of profiles. What may be attractive to one person could be a turn off for another.

This includes profile pictures, along with written bio content.

In an interview with Fast Company at the time, Tinder CEO Sean Rad said: "It's very complicated. It took us two and a half months just to build the algorithm because a lot of factors go into it.

"It's not just how many people swipe right on you."