My “Hinge” Binge: Figuring Out A New Dating App
If you’ve heard of Tinder, then you may have heard of Hinge.
Where Tinder matches you with local singles (as long as you both find each other attractive). Hinge does the same, BUT it only matches you to people in your extended social network. In other words, “meet new people through friends,” as its slogan puts it.
I joined Hinge, I binged (and by “binged” I mean I actively used the app for two weeks straight), here are the pros and cons I discovered:
PRO: IT’S FREE AND IT’S EASY
Call me a romantic, but I’m all about the dating apps that require next to no effort to set up. And Hinge is one of these dating apps. Also it’s free. Which can never hurt.
In just seconds, Hinge set me up by syncing to my Facebook and thankfully did not publish to Facebook that I just joined yet another free dating website.
CON: YOUR PROFILE PICTURES CAN MAKE YOU LOOK LIKE A NARCISSIST
Since Hinge pulls from Facebook, all of your profile pictures, likes, etc are out there for potential matches to see.
As someone who is always “reinventing myself,” through new profile pictures (mostly selfies), I found this a little problematic. While most guys on Hinge have one, maybe three profile pictures. I have 24. Twenty. Four. I would take some down, but who has time for that?!
PRO: YOU ONLY GET ABOUT 12 POTENTIAL MATCHES A DAY
But apparently this depends on how many of your Facebook friends are on Hinge. The more friends you have on Hinge, the more matches you get a day.
I kind of like having a smaller pool of matches. Fewer matches means there’s a greater chance for messaging when you match. And if you don’t Hinge for two days, you won’t get double the matches when you finally log back in, which I guess makes users more likely to check Hinge every day. Basically Hinge feels more focused and less overwhelming.
CON: YOU GET NEW MATCHES AT NOON
You get your potential matches everyday at noon. Noon. I think this app would be more successful if I got my matches at midnight. I’m too picky pre-cocktails and/or second cup of coffee.
PRO: YOUR MATCHES ARE LESS LIKELY TO BE LIARS
The mutual friend aspect makes your date less likely to lie about their relationship status, job title, and or age. The mutual friends factor almost holds them accountable. Or at least that’s what the app is trying to do (per their infographic above), hence its nickname, “the anti-Tinder.”
This does make it safer. Your Mom would approve!
In fact, my Mom sent me a clipping about Hinge in her, “I don’t believe you get magazines in LA so here’s a ton of things I found interesting” AKA THINGS YOU SHOULD DO RIGHT THIS SECOND.
I think she liked the idea that Hinge doesn’t match you with strangers. Or maybe she just read “dating app” “New York Times” and thought this was a surefire way to get her only daughter, into the New York Times wedding announcements someday. AKA my mom’s definition of “making it.”
But I digress…
CON: BUT MAYBE YOU WERE NEVER MEANT TO MEET…
I get how Hinge matches you with friends of friends. But your friends aren’t actually introducing you. Which makes me think, maybe that’s for a reason?
According to the Bible (AKA Sex & The City), in the book of Charlotte (S 3: EP 7) when Charlotte’s friends, a married couple, claim they are going to set her up with their bachelor friend Phil. Charlotte gets so excited because Phil sounds great! But Phil keeps standing her up. And it turns out that the husband of the married duo doesn’t want to set Charlotte up with Phil, because HE secretly likes Charlotte.
Maybe your friends aren’t introducing you to their single friends because they secretly like you?
Ok probably not. But as a believer in fate and destiny there’s something about Hinge that feels to me a little bit like forced fate.
PRO: THE GUYS ON HERE ARE PROBABLY LOOKING FOR MORE THAN JUST A HOOK-UP
Fewer matches. More conversation. I’ve come to discover that the guys on Hinge aren’t jumping the gun on getting a “drink” (AKA trying to get into your pants) instead they’re asking you questions about how you know their mutual friends, what do you do, what kind of music do you like. I do applaud my Hinge matches for putting an effort in getting to know me, instead of asking my thoughts on their “Swinger” lifestyle.
CON: THERE’S A LACK OF ANONYMITY
And that makes Hinge feel like Big Brother. Crap. One of our mutual friends is a guy I dated briefly. Will this “unhinge us?”
And that’s the other problem. There’s something kind of liberating about Tinder. There’s literally nothing to lose if you go on a Tinder date. If you hate them, you NEVER have to see them again. If you hate someone you meet on Hinge, you can EASILY see them again, because of the whole, ‘friends of friends,’ factor.
Overall, I’m kind of unhinged over Hinged (sorry). I think it’s time to purge from my Hinge Binge (again, sorry). While I love the idea, I’m not sure if it’s really for me.
Have any of you tried it? What are your thoughts?
