Tinder rolls out 'Loops', cool feature to add GIFs to your profileJuly 6 (AZINS) Tinder has officially rolled out Loops for profiles worldwide.

Loops are two-second GIFs which play in users’ profiles. The feature has been rolled out to users in the US, Western Europe and some countries in Asia and the Middle East, The Verge reported.

Users can edit the Loops within the app. One can add three or more photos or GIFs for a total of nine in the profiles.

Earlier, Tinder had finally fixed a security vulnerability on its dating platform which potentially allowed hackers to intercept photos between the app and the servers.

Last week, the company announced that all photos exchanged on its platform are now encrypted, Engadget reported. The changes follow an attack revealed in February that could have allowed hackers to access users' profile pictures and swipe actions.

New European research has revealed some of the different reasons people use picture-based mobile dating apps such as Tinder, and how men and women's usage of these apps differs.

Carried out by researchers at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway, the study recruited 641 Norwegian university students aged between 19 and 29 years, and asked them to complete questionnaires on their current and previous use of Picture-Based Mobile Dating Apps (PBMDA), including level and type of PBMDA activity, and reasons for PBMDA use.

Nearly half of the participants reported former or current PBMDA use, with one in five reporting that they were currently using a PBMDA app.

The results also showed that compared to those who have never used PBMDAs, participants who used these types of apps tended to be more unrestricted in their "sociosexuality," which refers to how open you are to short-term sexual relationships that don't lead to a committed relationship.

However, although users were more open to short-term, casual sexual relationships than the average person, this doesn't mean that they have more sexual partners than non-users who also prefer casual sex.

"Apps have become the new public arena for dating. But to a large extent, the people using them are the same ones you find dating other ways," says co-author professor Leif Edward Ottesen Kennair.

The responses also showed that the apps were used differently by men and women. Women spend more time on dating apps than men, possibly because they take more time considering each candidate before deciding to move on, whereas men make quicker decisions, and are also more likely to initiate contact.