One of the dating apps I find myself recommending to clients most often is Hinge.
It's popular amongst my single girlfriends, and guys ask me about it all the time, so let's check it out đ
Hinge is one of my favorite dating apps, and I often recommend it to clients đ
To use a car analogy, Hinge is like a Mercedes Benz E-Class:
Like most other dating apps, the Hinge experience centers around:
Hinge is unique in that youâre required to answer 3 pre-written question âpromptsâ as part of your profile.
(This isn't quite right â it's not "unique" anymore because other apps have copied the prompt feature, but Hinge was the first to use it!)
Here are examples of Hinge's prompts:
Prompts are designed to get conversation flowing with matches. Hinge offers 75 prompts to choose from!
A few of my favorites:
When you create your profile, youâll also have the choice to share personal details like your:
⌠and much more.
I encourage clients to stick to sharing age, height, education level, and work only.
Women can often infer what they need to know about these from your photos, but listing them explicitly builds trust & answers questions.
Information about your personal habits like drinking and drug use can be TMI before youâve matched though.
Several guys have told me theyâve dramatically increased their Hinge matches by removing this info from their profiles.
Once your profileâs set up, itâs time to make some matches.
Like most other dating apps, Hinge will show you a single-file queue of potential partners who meet your criteria (you can specify age, location, and lifestyle habits).
What makes the Hinge experience unique is that you donât just âswipe,â you have to engage with a specific element in your crushâs profile.
For example, you must reply to one of their prompts, or choose one of their photos to âlikeâ (with the option to include a note).
I like this, because it moves the conversation in a specific direction:
In reality, this feature doesnât prevent users from matching and using generic and boring opening lines like âhey whatâs up?â
But itâs a thoughtful step in the right direction.
Hinge has another queue where you can view users whoâve already âswiped rightâ on you (and read their messages, if they sent you one when they swiped).
If you swipe right back, youâll move over to the match interfaceâŚ
Here, you can view and engage with your matches.
The protocol for connecting with your matches on Hinge is the same as on most other apps:
During the pandemic, because people were hesitant to meet up in-person amidst COVID-19, Hinge added audio & video chat functionality.
Some of my friends used these features when they launched, but as the Coronavirus saga has carried on, most have reverted to the usual âswap a few text messages then get off the appâ flow.
(Quick tangent â wondering how to spice up your Hinge chats with photos? Check out my guide on how to send a photo via Hinge for the answer!)
Hinge is great for most singles:
I remember seeing Hinge tout how the majority of its users are college-educated, working professionals.
Regardless, Iâve been impressed with Hingeâs audience from an engagement standpoint.
There are fewer fake or vacant profiles on Hinge than on other apps in my experience.
I think this is because Hinge nails:
I use the term âintentâ to describe where on the relationship-seriousness spectrum a dating appâs audience tends cluster.
Hingeâs audience is medium-to-high intent.
Hinge markets itself as âdesigned to be deleted,â which is to say its goal is to help users find relationships and get off Hinge.
In my experience, Hinge users are looking to date (vs casually hook up, or immediately hop into long-term relationships...)
This is a good thing. It means you wonât waste time engaging with people who only want to fool around, nor will you consistently be saddled with desperate âmust-get-married-ASAPâ matches đŹ
Like most dating apps, Hinge is:
However you can purchase a premium Hinge membership for $5-10/month (the price is lower the longer youâre willing to commit) to unlock:
Hinge has users all over the world, though itâs not as popular abroad as Tinder.
Like most other dating apps, Hingeâs userbase is densest in cities.
And like most other dating apps, you can specify a âlocation radiusâ outside of which you wonât consider potential matches (e.g. <10 miles, <25 miles, or <50 miles from your location).
Basically, Hinge is great if youâre located in any major metropolitan area in the United States.
Another feature I love is that Hinge allows you to choose your location by default.
This means you can meet potential matches somewhere youâre not physically located without paying for a premium membership.
One other callout about Hingeâs location service is itâs ultra-specific. Hinge displays your neighborhood of choice, not just your city, to potential matches.
If youâre looking to date, Hinge is one of the best places to start online.
I recommend Hinge to almost all of my clients if theyâre not on it already âď¸
Hinge is well-established (itâs been around since 2012) and has lots of high-quality, high-intent singles on the platform.
Several of my girlfriends donât use any dating apps outside of Hinge!
However if youâre only interested in:
⌠Hinge may not the best dating app for you.
Anyway, give it a try for yourself, and let me know what you think!
One last word for the wise...
Youâll find awesome women on literally every mainstream dating app: Tinder, Bumble, Hinge, Raya, OKCupid, Match.com, Zoosk, Coffee Meets Bagel, BlackPeopleMeet.com, JDate, etc.
âď¸ Your profile across all these dating apps is essentially the same.
What do I mean?
Whether youâre using Hinge, Plenty Of Fish, Raya, or another app, youâll need some combination of the following to showcase who you are, and what you're about:
Where I'm going with this is...
What dating apps you use (e.g. Hinge vs Bumble vs Tinder) matters about 1/100th as much as the quality of your profile.
Why?
What does this mean for you?
You don't need to be on every dating app (or a specific dating app) to meet someone you like online.
You're better off improving your photos and your copywriting skills, so you stand out on whatever apps you're using today!
đ¸ This same principle applies to paid dating app features like DMs or extra swipes on Raya, Super Likes on Tinder, Roses on Hinge, etc...
Paid features might get you +1 or +2 matches per month.
If +1 or +2 matches per month sounds great, and you wonât miss the $20 (or whatever the add-on costs), don't let me stop you.
But the impact is negligible compared with the +100 or +200 matches youâd get per month by simply improving your profile đ
Make sense?
And if you're ready to get more matches, check out my ideas below!
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Just tell me where to send them here!