Today, Monday 22 March, Tinder has just announced that for the first time ever, people looking to apply to the UK’s upcoming Love Island season can fast-track their application on the dating app. At the beginning of the month, ITV confirmed that the show would be back this summer after the last two series were cancelled due to COVID-19, but director of TV Kevin Lygo has not yet said where or when it might be filmed. All unanswered questions put aside, we can’t wait to see the new cast, and if you’re up for applying, you might be one of the lucky ones! Here’s how Tinder’s couple up with Love Island will work.

Love Island has not aired in the UK since the show’s first ever winter series, filmed in South Africa, took place early in 2020. “As the COVID-19 crisis began to escalate in March, the summer series was cancelled, followed by the second winter series that was due to be broadcast earlier this year,” reports Sky News. Finally, ITV has confirmed that the seventh series of the show will go ahead later this year, and we’re so excited we could cry.

But that’s not even the biggest news of the week—applying to the show has now been made easier than ever! For the first time, Tinder members can apply for Love Island via the app. If selected, they will be added to a ‘Priority List’ and guaranteed to be seen by the casting team—one step closer to heading to the villa.

From this day, singletons on Tinder can submit their application by making just one Swipe Right in-app, turning their own Tinder profile into their first audition. “Swipe Cards will appear in between Tinder members’ stack of potential matches, so all they need to do is Swipe Right on the Swipe Card and their official Tinder profile will be submitted to the Tinder team for review and verification,” explained the dating app in a statement.

If the profile is then selected by the Tinder team, Love Island contenders will then be contacted via email by the dating app. The email will ask for confirmation of details, and as soon as these are completed and returned, the Tinder member will be added to a prioritised list for the Love Island casting team.

Just like we are, Tinder members are clearly big fans of the show. Mentions of ‘Love Island’ in Tinder bios increased by 30 per cent between the first episode in January 2020 and the final episode in the following month. For those who fancy dusting down their passport and giving themselves a chance of sweet summer loving in the villa, here are Tinder and Love Island’s five top tips to get their profile noticed:

When applying for the show, be authentic; show off your unique personality by creating a bio that gives us insight into the real you.

Make sure you upload pictures that best represent you. And by you we mean just you! Ditch the group shots and go solo in front of the camera.

Show off what you love to do in your spare time by telling us about your hobbies and interests, add in your Spotify anthems and generally a bit more about you.

The more you tell us, the more likely you are to get noticed. Make sure you select your ‘passions’ in your profile.

We need to see that you’ve been looking for love on Tinder. Have you matched on Tinder recently? If not, get on the app!

Renate Nyborg, EMEA General Manager at Tinder, said: “Bringing together the world’s most popular dating app and an iconic dating show is the perfect match! Tinder has the UK’s widest and most diverse community of singletons, so as this long-awaited dating season heats up, being on Tinder can change everything… Whether that’s sparking new connections, or kicking off your journey to the Love Island villa!”

This kicks off a broader commercial partnership where Tinder will have access to ex-islanders, including exit interviews. These interviews will form a series of content titled ‘Tinder calling’ and will be available on Love Island’s YouTube channel as well as other digital and social platforms.

The partnership will also be supported with ad spots including display ads on ITV.com and ITV.com/loveisland and ITV Hub takeovers and digital ads on VOD. Tinder will run sponsored content across all of Love Island’s social channels as well as sponsored content on the Love Island app.

 As for those on Tinder, Love Island in-app experiences will be revealed when the show begins! If you already have a Tinder account, you can apply here.

I’ve always felt like people define themselves by what they hate, not what they love (me included). And during my last few summers in the U.K., Love Island is this one topic that seems to be right in the middle—some hate on it, some absolutely love it. For the few of you that have been living under a rock, Love Island is a reality TV show where hot young singles (all looking for love) move to a house in Majorca and couple-up with someone in order to survive in the villa. Weekly, the ‘Islanders’ with the fewest votes have to leave the show. The winning couple leaves the island with £50,000.

I only started watching Love Island last year, and although it made me cringe from its initial tacky look and feel at first, I slowly got into it. A year later, you’ll find me on my sofa at 9pm sharp almost every night, ready to watch the daily events unfold. Put people under a microscope for two months and you’ll get viewers. Why? Not only because it’s basic human nature to scrutinise, criticise and analyse other people, but also because Love Island has these added elements of love, dating, ‘grafting’, ‘humping’ and people talking about their ‘type on paper’. What’s not to like?

In a country where Brexit seems to be a main point of discussion, one that is stressful for most of us, Love Island is my distraction. And while it’s important that people call out the show’s lack of diverse representation (after last year’s first black female contestant ever, there have been numerous articles about Yewande Biala, the one black woman on this year’s show), it’s worth thinking about the wider positive effects it has on viewers.

My point is that even though there are a lot of things that are wrong with Love Island, there are also many positive outcomes. Viewers might not relate to the unrealistic body standards or, more precisely, the lack of (body) diversity, but there is one thing everyone can relate to, the Islanders’ need for love. Unlike the other famous reality TV show Big Brother, Love Island is about showing how people react to topics that viewers can easily relate to—rejection, betrayal; abandonment. Talking to Vogue about Big Brother, clinic director of Harley Therapy, Sheri Jacobson said the show had a “tactic of purposely bringing in psychologically unstable (and thus highly vulnerable) people into the mix for entertainment’s sake”.

Let’s make things clear, just like any other TV reality show, Love Island is heavily edited—intense romantic relationships or not, both are manipulated by producers before ending up on our screens. Once taken with a pinch of salt, you’ll notice how the show operates on a different number of levels, creating a ‘theatre’ where Islanders are part of the ‘cast’. And this is exactly why I like Love Island so much, it is one of the best (and longest) plays I’ve seen. I see the show as metatheatre as a half joke and half serious point, with the definition of metatheatre being comedy and tragedy, and giving the audience a chance to laugh at the protagonist while feeling empathetic simultaneously. Sounds about right.

Love Island also clearly defines the complexities of British society. Admittedly, that’s not the reason I started watching it, but anyone criticising the reality TV show for its lack of intelligence should then decide to put their focus on what the show reflects of our society and our way of interacting with each other, not on the bare bums and silly arguments. One of the rules that the Islanders are given before going on the show is that they’re not allowed to talk politics or share their political views. Why exactly is that prohibited? Would it not make Love Island appealing to more viewers by showing Britain’s diverse political opinions, or would it just end in another Sherif drama?

Love Island is definitely not perfect, but it compelled me not to be so judgmental. Who am I to judge people on TV, especially people that just want to find love (and, okay, possibly win £50,000, something that is a big enough incentive to be accepted by everyone as the main goal of the journey, and yet last night Molly-Mae was fuming after being accused of doing that exactly)? The show points out the social dynamics that we also have in our own lives and pushes me to reflect on my own relationships (romantic or not). Maybe you should have a go as well, have a little Love Island therapy session.