> But [the app] doesn’t do so by hacking into Tinder, or even by “scraping” the app manually. Instead, it searches the database using Tinder’s official API, which is intended for use by third-party developers who want to write software that plugs in with the site. All the information that it can reveal is considered public by the company, and revealed through the API with few safeguards.
https://gist.github.com/rtt/10403467
which suggests that Tinder does not provide a public official API, people have simply reverse engineered the network requests of the application.
In short, the article is wrong.
Also part of the lesson on "What is an API?": the concept that some companies do not have an incentive to make an API...and Tinder, for many good reasons, is one of those.
It's interesting to see how companies structure their APIs, and public APIs usually seem to be much different from private.
So it does scrapes everything manually. I am familiar with their non-public API, and there isn't any other way to find someone specific. You just have to swipe non-stop until you find them.
Except if the app is using HTTPS with strict certificate pinning to connect to the API, which anyone should do.
Android apps still can be modified to ignore invalid certs, but with iOS it's harder.
It's much easier to run it on an Android and just use adb shell to simulate taps on an area. iOS devices take a bit more effort but still doable.