Tinder's new 'Places' tool helps you connect with that person you keep spotting at your favorite café

Struggling to gather the nerve to approach that attractive stranger you keep noticing at your go-to coffee spot? Tinder has stepped in to help. The popular dating platform has rolled out an innovative option called 'Places,' which allows users to find matches based on the venues they've recently been to.

To open Places, simply hit the pin icon located right beside the flame symbol at the upper edge of the Discovery page.

Once you're at a particular venue, you can browse through singles who have shown up at that same location and decide if you'd like to connect with them.

The Places interface within the Tinder app (Image: Tinder)

Worried that this sounds a touch too invasive? Rest assured, using Places is entirely up to you.

A Tinder representative shared in a post about the feature: "Prefer to keep your library visits to yourself? Consider it our little secret. But remember — whenever you're hunting for a study partner, Places has you covered."

The tool doesn't operate in real-time, so you won't pop up under a venue until after you've already departed from it.

Browse users who have visited a chosen location (Image: Tinder)

The spokesperson added: "Even when you happen to be in the same coffee shop at the same time as another user, Tinder won't surface that connection on the spot — unless that venue is already part of your Places. So feel free to keep on moving!"

Only 'social venues' make the cut, which means spots like your bank, your residence, and your doctor's clinic are off-limits and won't appear in the feature.

Should you want to erase the fact that you visited a particular spot, you also have the option to remove it from your list.

The initial rollout of Places covers Sydney, Brisbane, and Santiago, with Tinder noting that the feature might still be tweaked before its global release.

mirror.co.uk