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The dating app scene can be a complex world to navigate regardless of whether you’ve recently decided to give them a try or have been swiping on them like a pro for a long time. Regardless, the most important thing on the apps will always be the profiles of their users. Madame Noire recently got the chance to speak with Logan Ury, the Director of Relationship Science at Hinge, and got her tips on the best way to achieve a highly matched profile.
For Those New To Dating Apps With No Idea Where to Begin
“For anyone who’s downloading Hinge,” Ury began, “your profile is your first chance to make a great impression. One mistake that I see people make is that they’re so excited about finally taking the leap and downloading dating apps that they might actually rush through the process of making their profile because they can’t wait to get to their matches. I would really encourage them to invest in their profile because that’s what people are seeing.”
“Some of the things that make a great profile are things showing different sides of your personality,” she continued. According to her, it’s important to have a variety of images that display different elements of who you are as opposed to putting various photos on your profile where you look the same in each of them and are doing the same thing. She said that you want to “provide new information” to your possible connections with each thing you have on your profile.
“Another tip is that successfully Hinge users usually have at least one photo where they have other people in it because it shows potential matches that you’re social and that interpersonal connections are important to you so at least have one of those,” she encouraged.
Importantly, Ury also shared what things might hinder your profile from getting the matches you desire. “We also know that there’re certain pictures that turn people off. Those are things like gym selfies — only three percent of successful Hinge users have a gym selfie — pictures of people smoking, and we also recommend that you don’t include photos where other potential matches can’t see what you look like. Those are pictures like where you’ve used filters or where you have sunglasses on.”
When asked about whether photos of you wearing a face mask was a no-no, she noted that the safety precaution seemed to be an exception to her advice. She explained, “I didn’t mention a mask because I think that photos of you wearing a face mask could signal that you’re taking COVID precautions seriously — which can be a nice form of communicating to someone your COVID safety preferences.”
“If you really take a step back and ask yourself, ‘What’s the point of a profile?'” Ury said candidly, “the point of a profile is to show us who you are in a flattering but accurate way. Ways to do that are through photos that show a clear shot of what your face looks like — that’s often a good first photo — at least one photo with your full body so that we can see what that looks like, and photos of you doing things that you love whether that’s cooking or hiking or spending time in nature. Then (as mentioned) at least one photo of you with family and friends so that we see that you have a rich social life.”
For Longtime Dating App Users Who Want To Give Their Profile A Boost And Get Better Matches
“My philosophy on this is to date like a scientist,” Ury interestingly told us. Explaining the approach, she continued, “What a scientist does is they have a hypothesis, they run an experiment, they see what happens, they keep an open mind, and then they draw conclusions based on the experiment.”
“Selfies don’t perform as well on profile and neither do photos of you with filters. The dating like a scientist perspective of this is that you want all of your photos and all of your prompt response to be doing work for you,” she said. “You want them to be leading to conversations with the potential matches who will see them. If one of your photos or prompts is consistently not doing anything for you, swap it out for something else.”
Lastly, she emphasized that “your profile is your opening line — it’s how you’re putting yourself out there to the world for people to respond to. Put out what will lead to the types of conversation you want to have. People are going to comment on what you put out there so you should really be thoughtful about where it’ll lead a conversation.”
