Os Sons Do Tinder

Designing The Sound Of Tinder

Related Video: Flirting With Sound Design: What Does Tinder Sound Like?

Blips. Bloops. Chirps. Clicks. Swooshes. They’re the sounds behind some of your favorite apps, and like every pixel you see on a screen, they have been meticulously designed to create a particular effect.

Tinder, the landmark dating app, didn't have its own sound. Instead, it used stock sounds in the iOS library. Then Tinder company hired audio branding agency Listen to give the app a sonic makeover, which went live in late July. Cofounders Steve Milton and Brett Volker had to literally answer the question, "what does Tinder sound like?"

Listen's work may be familiar to you in the sound of Skype's app. The designers also have work in Microsoft’s upcoming Hololens augmented reality headset. See what they came up with for Tinder in the video above—and the carefully considered logic that got them to think beyond boinks, swishes, gunshots, and bumpchickabowows (all of which were earnest suggestions in our carefully architected man-on-the-street poll).