2. Crafting Your Tinder Profile
If youre one of the few remaining singles on Earth still unexperienced with Tinder, the first step is to create the best possible profile with the best possible pictures. Yes, Tinder is largely a looks-based endeavor (most dating apps are) and can sometimes feel superficial for that reason, but remember: It’s not really any different to meeting someone at a party or bar. You tend to approach the people you find physically attractive in real life, and then talk to them to see if there’s a deeper connection, right? It’s the same story with Tinder.
Lead Photo
It’s important to use a flattering (but not misleading) picture of yourself in your profile, and starting with a clear, well-composed, smiling image is your best bet. Make sure that your leading pic is a solo shot without other people in it — you don’t want potential matches to fall in love with your best friend.
Helpfully, Tinder has a «smart photo» dating website ratings function which continually tests the success rate of the photos youve uploaded to your profile, and automatically shows your best-performing photo to other users first. Its well worth enabling this function as it doesnt cost anything extra, and Tinder claims that it boosts right swipes by 12 percent. Like it or not, choosing the right Tinder pictures is the key to your online dating success.
Photo Diversity
Ideally, you want to take advantage of all the photo slots Tinder offers you to provide as much information as possible to potential matches. Consider that your pictures give away crucial information not just about what you look like, but also how you like to spend your time, matches are going to form a certain impression of you depending on whether you’re squatting in the gym, splayed out on a beach with friends or chugging back beer at the game.
Dont partake in kittenfishing the lite version of catfishing by uploading misleadingly flattering photos, and make sure your images are recent enough to show what you look like now. Remember, theres no point in being dishonest. Its all going to come out in the wash when you meet a match IRL, so be upfront from the start. If you’re really having trouble selecting photos, you could consider linking your profile to your Instagram account.
Your bio is optional, but we highly recommended including one. Youre allowed up to 500 words to showcase your dazzling personality here, but wed suggest you err on the side of relative brevity as online daters don’t want to read a novel while theyre swiping. Make your bio about you, and keep it short, simple and friendly — it’s a bonus if it’s funny, but you don’t want to come across as trying too hard, either.
3. How to Use Tinder
Depending on how much money you’re willing to spend, Tinder has several useful options to maximize your chance of getting matches. The Boost function can help for accumulating matches as it pushes you to the front of the match line for people in your area for half an hour. After the Boost session is over, you will see stats on how much more exposure your profile got (4x, 8x, etc), to ensure you got your money’s worth. Of course, you have to pay for the privilege, and free users cannot dictate where in the queue their profiles appear.
One potential pitfall of Tinder is that swiping becomes so reflexive that it is easy to accidentally swipe left on someone because youre going too fast. In those cases, Tinders Rewind function is invaluable — hand over a few bucks, and you can recover the person of your dreams that you accidentally swiped left on (free users will simply need to slow down and pay attention to what theyre doing).
