Hinge

Hinge—the dating app that’s designed to be deleted—promises to help you meet a long-term partner, fast.

This dating platform claims to be extra choosy in its matchmaking process so that 75% of users want to go on a second date with their prospects.

Hinge reports that it is the fastest-growing dating app in North America, the UK, and Australia.

It attributes its success to thoughtful prompts that make it easy to start a conversation with all your matches so that you can gauge whether there is a chemistry right away.

In this review, we take a detailed look at Hinge to help you decide whether this platform is worth committing to.

Features and Details

A previous version of Hinge required you to sign up through your Facebook account, and it then connected you with users with whom you had mutual connections.

That’s no longer the case today. Now, it’s possible to sign up for Hinge through either Facebook or your phone number, and you get to control how much of your private information (such as your last name) is visible.

Upon signing up, you’ll first need to upload a minimum of six photos to your account. Hinge will suggest a variety of captions for them, such as “caught in the act,” “guess where this photo was taken,” “how my friends see me,” “as seen on my mom’s fridge,” and more.

You’ll also be required to fill out at least three conversation prompts, which may include questions about the type of texter you are, what the secret is to get to know you, or your most irrational fear. The site updates its prompts every month to guarantee your answers stay fresh.

This information will be interspersed throughout your profile, along with basic demographic information like your age, height, current location, profession, education, religion, political views, and hometown. It’s your call whether you want to make any of this private.

Once your account goes live, you can start browsing other people’s profiles. Hinge is unique among dating apps in that you can like specific parts of user’s profiles (certain photos or prompts) rather than the full profile.

Hinge also gives you the option to comment on these details, which might make it easier to start a conversation with someone.

Free accounts can send out only ten likes each day, though premium users can send out as many as desired.

You’ll be able to see if someone likes you right away. If you accidentally skip someone you meant to like, you can tap the back arrow to undo your most recent skip.

Once you connect with someone by sending a like or comment, you can communicate for free through the app’s chat interface. There’s no limit to the number of messages you can send at this point.

If there are sparks and you eventually trade numbers, Hinge will follow up to see how your date went to make better recommendations in the future.

Recently, Hinge added a video chat feature to Hinge to help members connect even at times when it’s hard to meet up in person.

You won’t be able to access the video feature until you and your match have both sent a message to each other (not including initial comments on each other’s profiles).

Analysis of Customer Reviews

Here’s a summary of what users are saying about this app across the web:

Common Compliments:

• Detailed profiles make it possible to get a sense of each member
• Great app for meeting quality singles
• Simple to use
• The free version has lots of features

Common Complaints:

• App’s call feature can be glitchy
• A relatively limited number of profiles/users
• Can be challenging to navigate searches for other people
• Only a few likes available each day

Plans and Pricing

Hinge is free to use, but Preferred Membership gives you more opportunities to connect.

Beyond an unlimited number of daily likes, you’ll get access to additional filters for height, preferences around children, whether users drink or smoke, political views, and more.

Preferred Membership also lets you see everyone who has liked you at one time for easy comparisons between members.

This upgrade will cost between $10–$20 per month, depending on your plan:

• One-month plan: $19.99
• Three-month plan : $39.99 ($13.33/month)
• Six-month plan: $59.99 ($9.99/month)

Each membership option will enroll you in an automatic subscription. You’ll need to turn off auto-renewal at least 24 hours before the renewal date if you want to stop your membership.

Hinge won’t refund any unused service time if you stop using the app early.

You can get more traction on your profile by paying for the Boost feature. This makes your profile visible to more users for two hours, and others won’t know that you are being Boosted.

If you receive any likes that are a direct result of your Boost, there will be a small lightning bolt next to the name of the person.

A single boost costs $4.99, or you can purchase five for $19.99 ($3.99 each) or ten for $29.99 ($2.99 each).

Popular Alternatives to Hinge

For those looking to spend less time on dating apps and more time with partners in the real world, a few platforms promise to get you there.

Hinge’s competition includes Bumble and Coffee Meets Bagel; here’s how they compare.

To start, Bumble is a female-focused dating app that lets women make the first move from a communication standpoint.

This can offer welcome relief for women who are used to getting inundated with messages on traditional dating apps, and the site claims that more than 60% of matches eventually result in communication.

One potential pitfall is that users only have 24 hours to message potential matches for the first time. If they miss this window, there are limited ways to reconnect.

It’s free to use Bumble, but with most dating apps, your effectiveness on the site will likely improve if you pay for extra features like profile boosts and SuperSwipes. Subscriptions range from $15–$25 per month.

Coffee Meets Bagel operates more similarly to Hinge. The site emphasizes conversation prompts and ice breakers to get communication going, and you can start connecting with other users immediately through a free account.

One big difference is that all Coffee Meets Bagel conversations will expire after seven days. The site wants you to exchange real contact information before that time so that you test out your connection in the real world.

You can access extra features through a premium Coffee Meets Bagel membership ($20–$35 per month), and you can also purchase “coffee beans” that let you like additional members, get your profile seen faster, and other benefits.

Though this site offers similar promises as Hinge, it tends to get worse reviews due to the number of scammer accounts on the site.

If you’re struggling to choose between these three apps, it’s a smart idea to create a free account on each one. This lets you get a closer look at the member pool and experiment with the different communication styles to learn which one best suits your preferences.

The Bottom Line

Hinge promises to get you out of the online dating world fast, and in many ways, it delivers on this objective.

Every part of the app, from the photo captions to the mandatory prompts, are designed to jumpstart a conversation.

The app also slows down and limits the number of people you can reach out to each day (for free users) so that you spend more time considering each match rather than swiping indiscriminately.

Customer reviews indicate that Hinge has helped a lot of people make long-term love connections. However, as with all dating apps, it’s not a magic solution.

You’ll need to put some effort into creating a quality account and engaging with the kinds of people you are interested in, and not shy away from rejection.

Even with an app that encourages conversation, it’s essential when online dating to become comfortable with the idea of getting ignored until you connect with the right person.