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Millions around the world have used Tinder's swipe system to find potential dates - but now it could also help find a pet.

The BarkBuddy app is designed to match up pet lovers with dogs in their local shelters.

It lets people quickly swipe through available animals, choosing those they like - and the app even learns their canine preferences over time.

Users can tap to see more information on each dog, and press the i button to be connected to the shelter where it is homed.

'BarkBuddy is the first app designed to locate adoptable pups in your area and fetch you a perfect match,' says Barkbox, the New York firm behind the app.

'Browse through thousands of pup profiles, you can get more info about a pup, share it with friends, or save your favorites;.'

As users swipe through photos of dogs the app looks at the different aspects of your favorite animals to improve its recommendations.

It also provides a graph of the breeds people favour, and they can also choose what size, age and sex of animal they prefer.

Users can save favourites, and then contact the shelter.

'Set up a meet and greet, and get the tennis ball rolling on adopting your next best friend!' the firm boasts.'

The firm, which offers a subscription gift box service for dogs, decided to create the app following a series of popup events.

BarkBuddy can remember user's favourites, allowing them to easily return to the dog of their dreams.

Users can choose their favourites, and even see which breeds they swipe most.

'Some of you may remember the Pup Up Shop adoption events we had in NYC and LA last summer,' said Henrik Werdelin, Co-Founder of Bark & Co.

'Our idea was pretty simple: bring cool people to a place where they want to hang out, insert puppies and the rest would take care of itself.

'The crazy thing is that our idea worked.

'We learned that if we presented these pups in a way that showed their true value we could vastly increase the chance they'd get adopted.'

The events saw 80 dogs adopted in four days, so the team decided to work on an app.

It currently lists over 300,000 adoptable dogs, and has had 8 million swipes in the week it's been live.

The firm said it was stunned by the response to the app, and told MailOnline it is on track to see 50M swipes this month, with one user alone having already swiped through almost 20,000 dog profiles.