You Will Probably See Some Of Your Facebook Friends While Swiping On Tinder

Picture this: You're mindlessly swiping through Tinder on your commute to work one day. You come across some weirdos, some decently cute people, and one person you even felt compelled enough to swipe right on. Then, in the midst of your swiping haze, one profile catches your eye. Not because they're cute or because their bio made you laugh, but because you know them. You were in class together in college. You're Facebook friends. You start to panic a little bit. Does Tinder match you with Facebook friends? Oh God, are you going to see other people you know, too? Are they going to see you?

There's one guy from college whose profile I see literally every time I go on Tinder. We drunkenly made out at a party during my sophomore year, and then, we'd uncomfortably say hello to each other if we crossed paths on our way to class or something. And, yes, we're Facebook friends. Which means Tinder can indeed match you with Facebook friends.

Whenever I see this guy's profile, I think Tinder is playing a prank on me. It's like they know how awkward we've been during every interaction we've ever had, and they just think it's funny to keep putting his profile in front of me. Obviously, this is not the case, but if one of your Facebook friends lives in your city and falls within the ranges of your Discovery Settings on the app, there's a possibility that their profile will come up as you're swiping.

I've seen countless Facebook friends on Tinder. If we're good friends IRL, sometimes I'll swipe right as a joke. (I only do this to guys with whom my friendship is extremely clearly platonic.) I've never seen an ex on Tinder, but if I did, I would probably panic and swipe left. Actually, I would probably swipe right out of curiosity, wait a few days to see if we matched, and if we didn't, feel irrationally sad about being rejected all over again. Yeah, that sounds about right.

Truthfully, it doesn't have to be awkward if you see a Facebook friend on Tinder. I have so many random friends on Facebook who might as well be strangers at this point because I forgot where I know them from. If I saw them on the app, I'd just treat them like I would treat any other stranger. And who knows? A right swipe on someone you're Facebook friends with could lead to something great. In fact, once, while swiping on Bumble, I saw someone I sort of knew as a teenager and always thought was super cute, but never had the chance to really get to know. So, I swiped right, and we matched! My 15-year-old self was very gratified.

Facebook and Tinder are connected, so unfortunately, unless you move to a city where none of your Facebook friends live and/or you adjust your Discovery Settings so that it's impossible for any of them to fall within any of the ranges (though, that second suggestion sounds really challenging and unnecessary), there's no way around seeing the occasional Facebook friend or two on the app. And there's no way around them seeing you, either.

If it makes you feel better, dating apps aren't the strange, taboo things they used to be, so there's no need to feel weird about Facebook friends knowing you're on them. Dating apps are awesome! We should all be on them, and we should all be telling our friends to go on them. Yes, even our Facebook friends.

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