New Study Reveals 6 Best Tips for Getting More Hinge Dates

Creating a Hinge profile is easy. But creating a good Hinge profile is hard. And getting dates from Hinge is even harder.

Here, we’ll share our 6 best tips for creating your best Hinge profile and scoring more Hinge dates. And we didn’t make these tips up. We got them by surveying 100 women who use Hinge.

That’s right, we conducted a new study to figure out how guys can get more dates with women on Hinge.

We at The Match Lab surveyed 100 women across the United States. All of the women we surveyed were single, straight, and actively using Hinge. We asked these women what they look for in a guy’s Hinge profile, what types of Hinge openers they want to receive from guys, and what they wish guys would do on the app to interest them in going on a first date.

Our study revealed a lot about how guys can get more matches on Hinge and turn those matches into dates. The women we surveyed shared many thoughts on how guys can create better Hinge profiles, from using the right photos to writing good prompts. These women also had a lot to say about what guys can do to win over their matches, have better conversations, and get women to go out with them.

Based on the results of our study, here are the top 6 ways guys can get more dates from Hinge:

Hinge Tip #1: Make Sure You’re Using the Best Photos for Your Hinge Profile

On any dating app, using the right photos in your profile is important for attracting women. Hinge is a unique app in that requires you to upload exactly six photos of yourself—no more or no fewer. To make the most of these six slots, it is essential that you know what type of pictures to put on Hinge.

There are many mistakes to avoid when it comes to your Hinge profile pictures. In our study, the women we surveyed complained that guys often use low-quality blurry photos, post too many pictures of themselves wearing sunglasses, and have too many selfies in their profile. The majority of women in our study also say that fishing photos and hunting photos on Hinge are major turnoffs.

Here are 6 Hinge profile tips we uncovered from our study guaranteed to help you create a profile that gets more likes and more matches.

Use a high-quality headshot, ideally one in which you’re smiling and making eye contact with the camera.
Include at least one full body shot in your profile so women can see what you look like from head to toe.
Show off your hobbies and interests, your pets, and any musical instrument you might play. Include photos that show your athletic side, creative side, or silly side.
If you you’ve traveled recently and have photos from your trip, include your best one that shows a well-known site or otherwise scenic view behind you.
Across your photos, wear a variety of outfits and show off different aspects of your personality and your lifestyle.
Remember that your photos don’t exist in isolation; they work together to make up your full profile. Choose six photos that work well together and tell an engaging story about who you are.

Our study showed that, out of all the best Hinge tips for guys, selecting good profile pictures is the most important one when it comes to how to match on Hinge.

For customized help selecting which photos to use for Hinge, consider using our dating photo selection service. We’ve spent years analyzing which photos get the most high-quality matches on Hinge and other dating apps. In our experiments, time and time again, we’ve created multiple different versions of the same person’s profile and tracked how many likes each profile gets.

From our research, we built an algorithm for selecting any person’s best dating profile pictures for any dating app. Try our dating photo analyzer to discover which photos you should be using on Hinge.

Hinge Tip #2: Write Good Hinge Prompts That Stand Out from the Crowd — Here’s How:

What is the purpose of profile prompts on Hinge? The purpose is to complement your photos by providing a glimpse into who you are and what you’re looking for.

Hinge requires you to include three prompts in your profile, which gives you three opportunities to attract women. Hinge offers hundreds of prompts to choose from, which can make creating a good profile seem even more confusing. It can be tough to come up with good Hinge prompt ideas.

Through our research at The Match Lab, we’ve discovered several key Hinge prompt tips. We’ve even come up with a simple framework for thinking about which Hinge prompts you should use: use one prompt that is about you, one prompt focused on getting to know your potential match, and one prompt about what relationship you’d like to have with your match. We call this the “you, her, us” framework.

Here’s an example. Your first prompt might be the “One thing I'll never do again…” prompt (this is a “you” prompt). Your second prompt could be the “Green flags I look for…” prompt (this is a “her” prompt). And your third prompt could be: “The hallmark of a good relationship is…” (this is an “us” prompt). In fact, based on analysis we’ve done of women’s behaviors on Hinge, these three prompts are some of the best Hinge prompts for guys when it comes to getting more matches.

In our study, from surveying 100 women, we discovered 7 specific tips for how guys can write good Hinge prompt answers:

Be vulnerable. Write prompts that are authentic and share your inner world. Express yourself emotionally and show that you can be in touch with inner self.
Write prompts that give women an opportunity to see what you and she may have in common.
Write prompts that give women a sense of what you look for in a relationship, how you approach dating and relationships, and what dating you would look like.
Show your interests and hobbies. Write about what lights you up most, what you’re passionate about, and how you spend your free time. Share any hidden talents you have.
Lighten up. Write prompts that show you can be easygoing and have a funny side. You don’t have to be a professional comedian. Just lighten up a bit and show that you don’t take yourself overly seriously.
Show your adventurous side. If you have a story of a time you did something adventurous, or if there’s something adventurous on your bucket list, then that’s a perfect topic to write about in a prompt.
Put thought into writing prompts that are specific, unique, and interesting. Write prompts that tell women something about your personality. Writing that you “love to travel” is too vague and doesn’t tell anything about you because almost everyone loves to travel. If you’re writing about travel, give a vivid travel story from the past or list out specific places you’d like to visit next.

For customized help writing Hinge prompts, consider working with our professional dating profile writing service. We’ll select which prompts are best for you and we’ll write your prompts for you. We’ve spent years analyzing which prompts get the most high-quality matches on Hinge and how to write prompts that showcase your best self. Try it out today to discover the best Hinge prompts for your unique profile.

Hinge Tip #3: Send the First Message

Women tend to get far more matches than men get on Hinge. Our research has found that while it’s common for guys to feel frustrated by getting few to no matches on Hinge, a common issue women face is that they have too many guys wanting to match with them.

Guys, keep this in mind: most women get tons of Hinge likes per day. That means each woman, on average, has a long list of guys competing for her attention on Hinge. This is one of the reasons why dating is so hard for guys online, and why getting professional Hinge profile help is so important.

So, guys, when you do score a match with a woman, you want to stand out from the crowd and catch her attention. The best way to do this is to send the first message. In fact, many women we surveyed in our study said that they’re too overwhelmed with all the messages they get from guys that they simply don’t have the time to initiate new conversations with their latest matches.

It’s unlikely that a woman will send the first message on a dating app. Guys, if you don’t write to women first, you’ll move down in their list of matches and there’s a good chance they won’t even notice they ever matched with you.

Hinge Tip #4: Make Your First Message Count — Best Hinge Openers to Send So She’ll Write Back

Using the right photos in your profile and writing a good Hinge profile are the most important things you can do to get more Hinge dates. Next up is writing a great first message to a match.

Women have many guys writing to them. If you want to land more dates from Hinge, it all starts with sending a good opener to kick off the conversation with a match.

The women we surveyed couldn’t stress enough just how important it is to write opening messages that are specific to the women you’re messaging. Each time you send an opener to a new match, try to use details from her profile to write a unique message for her. The women in our study complained that way too many guys simply say “hey” as their opener. Women hate that.

According to our study, the best opener a guy could send on Hinge is a message that shows a genuine interest in getting to know the woman. On a similar note, the women we surveyed said that they wish guys asked more questions when messaging on Hinge. Asking your match about something in her profile is the best opener you can use to start a conversation. Show that you’re interested in who she is as a person on the inside, not just what she looks like on the outside.

The second-best Hinge opener to send is something funny. Humor is attractive, and the second most popular preference among the women we surveyed is for guys to send them an opener that makes them laugh.

In our study, we found that most women say the ideal opener should be just one sentence long. Some women said they prefer slightly longer openers, saying that a guy’s first message should ideally be 2-3 sentences long.

Make sure you proofread your opener before you send it. The women we surveyed commented that typos are a huge turnoff.

Hinge Tip #5: Send Messages That Create Chemistry and Spark Connection with Matches

Having a strong opener is important for getting women to reply to your message so you can get a conversation going. Once she replies, now it’s time to create chemistry and work toward setting up a first date.

Here are the 10 best tips for messaging women on Hinge, according to the women we surveyed:

Ask more questions.
Be genuine and authentic.
Be vulnerable and emotionally available.
Share your interests, hobbies, and passions.
Express your interest in getting to know her.
Be playful and make her laugh.
Don’t take too long to respond.
Avoid making sexual remarks.
Avoid commenting on her physical appearance.
Use correct spelling and proper grammar.

Hinge Tip #6: Ask Her Out at the Right Time — The Best Way Ask a Woman Out on Hinge

It can be challenging to know when’s the right time to ask a woman out on Hinge. You don’t want to ask her too soon before she’s ready, but you also don’t want to wait too long and miss your chance.

Our study found that 46% women on Hinge say the ideal time for a guy to ask her out is once she and he have exchanged 5-10 messages each. We also found that 45% of women say they’d prefer to wait until she and he have sent at least 10 messages each before getting asked out. So, the perfect time to ask a woman out on Hinge seems to be after you’ve sent around 10 messages each, give or take a few messages.

It’s important to feel out the situation and play it case by case. If each of your messages is just a short sentence, then you’ll likely need more than 10 messages before it’s time to ask her out. But if your match and you are each sending multiple paragraphs of text each message, then it’s probably ideal to ask her out for a date sooner, after sending around five messages each.

It’s best to ask a woman out at a high point in the conversation. Ideally, the conversation will be escalating as the chemistry between you two develops, and you’ll want to capitalize on that energy by suggesting a date to continue chatting.

If you’d like to ask your match out but are unsure if you’ve messaged enough yet, it’s probably best to go for it. Here’s a quote from one woman we surveyed: “I wish that guys would make plans to meet after determining that we have some things in common. A lot of guys just continue to chat and it makes me think they're not serious about meeting people, they just want a pen pal.”

Don’t become her pen pal. Become her next date.

What type of date should you suggest? According to our study, the most preferred first date among women on Hinge is to grab coffee. The second-most preferred date is to get drinks. Some other popular first date activities among the women we surveyed include having dinner, having lunch, or going for a walk.

Hinge vs. Bumble vs. Tinder: Is Hinge Better Than Tinder? Is Hinge Better Than Bumble?

Hinge is a unique dating app and has many differences from other apps like Tinder and Bumble. Overall, from our research, we’d say that Hinge is better than Tinder or Bumble for guys. Here are four specific features that set Hinge apart from either Bumble or Tinder:

1) Photo Dimension on Hinge vs. Bumble vs. Tinder.

Photos on Hinge are cropped to a square aspect ratio of 1:1. It can be useful to think about this photo dimension when deciding which profile pictures to use on Hinge, as some of your photos may look great in their original form but look much worse when you’re forced to crop them to a 1:1 ratio. Overall, our research has found that guys tend to look best in photos that are cropped to a 1:1 ration, making Hinge a particularly good dating app for guys.

2) Hinge is unique in requiring users to have exactly six photos in their profile.

Tinder, Bumble, and other dating apps like Match, OkCupid, and eharmony tend to give more flexibility in how many photos you can use, with some apps letting users have as few as one profile picture and as many as over 20 pictures.

By requiring you to use exactly six photos, Hinge helps eliminate one common question of how many photos should you have in your profile. That makes things slightly easier. Then the question is just a matter of which photos you should put in your profile, and hopefully our tips at the top of this article can help you select your best Hinge profile pictures.

3) Hinge offers major help for guys when it comes to messaging a match.

Hinge gives you a lot to work with in how exactly you send your first message to a woman. While you “like” a woman on Tinder and Bumble simply by swiping right on her profile, you can “like” a woman on Hinge by sending her a message. This means that by putting time into writing thoughtful messages, you can optimize your chances of getting more matches.

Also, on Hinge, you can select which specific part of a woman’s profile (which specific photo of her, or which one of her prompts) you want to “like.” That means if one of her prompts stands out to you, you can reply directly to that specific prompt to her and get a conversation going from it. This is also a reason why sending thoughtful openers is very important on Hinge.

4) Hinge is better than Bumble or Tinder for guys when it comes to turning matches into conversations.

On Bumble, only women can send the first message, and a match expires if the women doesn’t message you within 24 hours (and when the match expires, it essentially disappears and your opportunity is gone). Unfortunately, it’s a common occurrence on Bumble that women never message the guys they match with.

On Hinge, as is the case on Tinder, matches don’t expire, and both men and women have the power to start a conversation with anybody they match. This makes Hinge a better dating app than Bumble for guys who are ready to initiate thoughtful conversations with women and want to turn their matches into dates.

From our research, we have found that women are more likely to respond to guys’ openers on Hinge than on Tinder, which is another reason why we’re of the position that Hinge is better than Tinder for guys.

The Top 10 Worst Mistakes to Avoid Making on Hinge

Hopefully those Hinge tips reviewed above can help you get more dates from the app. There’s a lot you can do to improve your success on Hinge. But, importantly, there’s also a lot you can do to mess up your success. There are some key mistakes a lot of guys make on Hinge that prevent them from getting likes or converting their matches into dates.

So, in our study, we asked our pool of 100 women to share the biggest mistakes guys make on Hinge. Here were the top 10 biggest mistakes women mentioned:

Using profile pictures that show you with your ex-girlfriend or with other women.
Using multiple versions of the same photo or the same outfit.
Posting too many selfies, especially gym selfies.
Having photos of yourself hunting or holding fish.
Writing generic prompts and using clichés in prompts.
Not asking any questions when you’re messaging a woman.
Using low-quality blurry photos or old photos.
Having too many group photos.
Taking too long to respond to messages.
Writing one-word answers to prompts.

Want Hinge Profile Help from a Hinge Expert? We’ll Create Your Perfect Hinge Profile for You

We at The Match Lab have spent years studying why some Hinge profiles succeed and others fail. We’ve mastered how to write Hinge prompts and how to select the right Hinge profile pictures. In fact, we even built a dating photo analyzer that analyzes a person’s photos and reveals which ones they should use on Hinge (or any other dating app) to get the most likes and to attract better matches.

We’ll select the best photos for your Hinge profile and we’ll write you three prompts that showcase your best self. Get started today!