It is, they just now break up the brands for marketing purposes. I know people who have worked on the marketing for both Tindr and Hinge. They're owned by the same company (Match, along with all the others) and in meetings specifically use each other as messaging differentials. It used to be that dating apps needed to create just enough success stories for them to sell and good matches for it not to seem not-worthwhile for users. Now they've realised they can extend that user-journey by making users jump between apps and brands. I've heard (albiet second hand from people on the marketing side rather than dev) that a decent number of people on the user retention and algorithm side don't just come from social media firms, but increasingly crypto and gambling sites. That probably tells you a lot about how they operate. Then there's the fact that users also vary which aspects of themselves they put forward in their profiles to implicitly best suit the different apps, which also increases the amount of data and grows the personality profile that they have for each user as an added bonus. They actively want you to jump from app to app.
I'm pretty sure it's an open secret that they have always done this
It is, they just now break up the brands for marketing purposes. I know people who have worked on the marketing for both Tindr and Hinge. They're owned by the same company (Match, along with all the others) and in meetings specifically use each other as messaging differentials. It used to be that dating apps needed to create just enough success stories for them to sell and good matches for it not to seem not-worthwhile for users. Now they've realised they can extend that user-journey by making users jump between apps and brands. I've heard (albiet second hand from people on the marketing side rather than dev) that a decent number of people on the user retention and algorithm side don't just come from social media firms, but increasingly crypto and gambling sites. That probably tells you a lot about how they operate. Then there's the fact that users also vary which aspects of themselves they put forward in their profiles to implicitly best suit the different apps, which also increases the amount of data and grows the personality profile that they have for each user as an added bonus. They actively want you to jump from app to app.