Sydney, Australia, Friday, June 6, 2025: Tinder®, the dating app that revolutionised how people meet, has taken its safety messaging straight to students, with its Verified QT booth touching down at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) this week.

Bringing dating from URL to IRL, the pop-up activation is part of Tinder’s broader push to make profile verification the new norm - and help young Aussies date smarter and safer. Backed by Match Group’s Senior Vice President of Trust & Safety, Yoel Roth, who took part in the activation, the initiative puts authenticity and accountability front and centre.

Following its beachside debut at Bondi last November, Verified QT has arrived on campus with a mission: to give students the tools, know-how, and confidence to own their dating life - with a verified blue check mark to match.

Students who joined the Verified QT event received:

• A professional photoshoot with Cybele Malinowski - the renowned photographer behind portraits of Jason Momoa, Florence Welch, and Troye Sivan.
• A profile glow-up with local dating expert Sera Bozza, who offered one-on-one coaching on bios, photo selection, and navigating Tinder’s ID + Photo Verification feature.

All this comes after Tinder recently rolled out its newest feature in Australia - Tinder U - connecting students with classmates and nearby uni singles, making campus crushes easier to find (and match with).

The activation was inspired by recent Tinder insights that show 69% of Aussie Gen Z users are more likely to engage with verified profiles, and 66% say seeing a verification badge makes them feel more confident swiping.

Speaking at the pop-up on campus at UNSW, SVP, Trust & Safety at Match Group Yoel Roth said: “The verification badge is a really critical part of what safety means when using Tinder. 

“It lets users know the person they’re chatting with is who they say they are. That they’re not being catfished or misled, and it gives people the confidence that, when they take the next step to meet face-to-face, they know who they’re going to get.”

ID + Photo Verification on Tinder involves a two-step process: a video selfie matched against both profile photos and a valid form of ID (passport or driver’s license). Once completed, users earn a blue checkmark - and can proudly claim Verified QT status.

This latest activation illustrates Tinder’s commitment to building safer, more intentional digital dating experiences - and signals a new era of swiping with confidence.

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How to be a Verified QT on Tinder

To encourage Aussie singletons to verify themselves seamlessly, Tinder’s dating expert, Sera Bozza breaks it down into these simple steps to become a Tinder Verified QT.

1. Click to tick: In your profile settings, tap on the outlined photo or ID image, next to your name and age, and then on the ID + Photo Verification pop-up to start the verification process 
2. Mapping the mug: Remove any hats, sunglasses, and face coverings before following the prompts to take your video selfie and verify your profile photos. Tip: Make sure you’re in a well-lit space so the camera can capture all your features, but avoid any harsh glare and backlighting. If your photos are already verified, you will be able to skip this step!
3. IDing the ID: Once Photo Verified, follow the prompts to upload a government-approved ID, i.e. your driver’s licence or passport.

The tool will then focus on both age and likeness to check the photo on the ID matches the face in the Photo Verification feature and your profile photos, and also check your date of birth.

And voila – blue checkmark and Verified QT status secured! 

ABOUT TINDER®

Launched in 2012, Tinder® revolutionised how people meet, growing from 1 match to one billion matches in just two years. This rapid growth demonstrates its ability to fulfil a fundamental human need: real connection. Today, the app has been downloaded over 630 million times, leading to over 100 billion matches, serving approximately 50 million users per month in 190 countries and 45+ languages - a scale unmatched by any other app in the category. In 2024, Tinder won four Effie Awards for its first-ever global brand campaign, “It Starts with a Swipe™”.

Tinder is a registered trademark of Tinder LLC. 

ABOUT YOEL ROTH

Yoel Roth is a trust and safety practitioner and researcher. He is the Senior Vice President of Trust & Safety at Match Group, the parent company of Tinder, Hinge, and more than a dozen other dating apps used by millions of people worldwide. He is also a Non-Resident Scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and was previously the Head of Trust & Safety at Twitter. His research, teaching, and writing focus on trustworthy governance approaches for social media, AI, and other emerging technologies.

ABOUT CYBELE MALINOWSKI 

Sydney photographer and filmmaker Cybele Malinowski is known for her playful, edgy fashion shoots and portraits of actors and musicians. Cybele Malinowski is a multidisciplinary image maker, her work blurring between the photography and film world. Her work takes her to all corners of the world in search of the agony + ecstasy that makes humans tick.

Cybele is also the founder of AGENDER, a platform for change which celebrates the great talent, wisdom and experience of women in the photographic industry in Australia. Its key goal is to bolster the careers of female photographers, and in turn not only inspire a new generation of young women, but to also recognise and work towards equal wages and opportunities for women within the industry. 

ABOUT SERA BOZZA

Sera Bozza is an evidence-based dating coach and the founder of the dating coaching brand ‘Sideswiped.’ Sera takes a science-backed approach to help make her clients’ dating lives easier and effortless, and, of course, a little juicier too. Sera has appeared as a dating expert on leading Australian men’s and women’s lifestyle sites, and has collaborated with Tinder on Australia campaigns and media panels.