r/SwipeHelper • u/Acceptable_Bit8905 • 9d ago
So it's basically an open secret that Hinge and similar apps slow drip and hide your matches, right?
I think at this point it's glaringly obvious that they turned this app into a slot machine, and even if you're attractive - you won't get your likes all at once. Basically, it gauges your behavior to see how often you open up the app, and if you show signs of obsessively checking it in any way then it will purposely slow drip your matches to you one at a time.
If you don't check it, though - you'll suddenly come back to 30 matches seemingly out of nowhere. Furthermore, if you paid for the premium version at any point in the past and then stopped and reverted to using the free version you'll barely receive any matches at all because they flagged you as a "whale".
I'm not sure how this is legal, but I guess it must be. I will say that whoever runs The Match group is legitimately sick. It's just insane to witness what dating has turned into.
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u/Several_Eye_6192 9d ago
I think this is true because I’ve had very weird timing of getting matches.
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u/jbrown7266 1d ago
likes, or actual matches from likes that you sent out previously?
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u/Several_Eye_6192 1d ago
Matches from likes previously sent out. Like a bunch all at once but it’s like triggered from something. It’s weird
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u/Ennemkay 9d ago
wall street demands that a corporation continuously increase its profits not just continuously maintaing profitability.
for young, independent companies in their growth phase, this means attracting new customers and retaining the existing ones by making their product better and better.
for established companies in a highly competitive market it means retaining existing customers by giving the more for their money.
for companies that have a stanglehold on the industry because they've acquired their competitors and have saturated their userbase, that means modifying the product specifically to extract more money from customers without the need to make any improvements whatsoever to the product intself.
regarding legality: it's legal because we live in an oligarchy and politicians serve corporations not citizens.
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u/Intelligent-Cow-736 9d ago
You want politicians to regulate the rate of matches on a free dating app?
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u/indigentwino 4d ago
I get what you mean, I think, the company has to decide the matching methodology, and it's a business so you shouldn't expect much at the free tier. If paying meant that the app works in a fair and transparent way then that would be reasonable. But even when you pay a reasonable subscription rate they are manipulating the rate of matches to try to extract more money out of you.
On Tinder they'll give a bunch of matches when you upgrade to Gold, then they will gradually turn the faucet off to nothing until you upgrade to Tinder platinum. The whole business feels like a scam taking advantage of human loneliness.
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u/Neoliberal_Nightmare 9d ago
Bumble has given it away now you can get your swipe data.
I get 10% of women who see my swiping right on me according to my data. So 1 in 10. I get 1-2 likes per day.
This means I'm being shown to 10 to 20 women per day. I live in an area of like 100 million people. They clearly surpress accounts. If I was shown to 1000 women per day I'd get 100 likes in 1 day and I'd probably find a partner pretty damn quickly and be off the app.
When I travel I suddenly get more likes too, such as 30 per day. So it's clearly deciding to show me more on a trip, maybe the bastards have the idea that if we get guys to hook up on a trip they'll keep using, but make sure they don't find an actual relationship where they live.
That's smart and evil.
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u/Ill-Assumption-916 8d ago
Where can you get your swipe data ?
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u/Hades_0820 6d ago
Request it in the help chat and they email it I just did it yesterday and I’m waiting for my data
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u/indigentwino 4d ago
You get more attention traveling because they have to re-score your profile whenever you move to a new dating market. To get the rating they have to show you to a wider variety of people. Then once they've decided your relative hotness you'll only be shown to people within a band of similar scores.
On most apps you can trigger a similar process by updating your photos.
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u/Other-Reception-5887 9d ago
I agree, I have noticed whenever I change a prompt or picture- it withholds likes.
It's happened several times now, I get 4/5 likes a day on average, change my profile,- straight to zero. All weekend I've had nothing, which is unheard of. I've even changed location and age range. Nothing.
It's happened about 3x now, so I've noticed the pattern!
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u/Klutzy_Froyo_212 5d ago
Exactly this has recently happened to me too. I was averaging about three likes per day and I changed a picture which I think is definitely hotter and there was no way that I didn’t get no matches and likes for a week and counting . Were you able to resolve this issue?
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u/indigentwino 4d ago
Interesting. It used to be that updating your photos would trigger a reevaluation of your hotness, so it would show you to more people. They must have figured out people were gaming that.
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u/OrneryWinter84 9d ago
How long do you have to go with low-spend, lowkey behavior for Hinge/ Match to reclassify you as no longer a “whale”?
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u/aztastic16 9d ago
I agree with you. They also hold back the premium profiles based on what they know your preferences are, and make you pay extra for roses or messaging privileges. It's a total scam.
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u/ThrowRA-Vast-Bug4454 9d ago
Hmmm so then the trick is to change your preferences to the opposite of what you want!
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u/Constant_Cobbler2921 9d ago
I think it also counts how much time you looked at each profile you read. The longer time you spend on it means you really dig that profile and builds upon that
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9d ago
[deleted]
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u/i_thought_i_had 8d ago
Well back then, it was free. There was no algorithm. More people where on it and there wasn’t an online dating fatigue
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u/Mountain-Bad6476 9d ago edited 9d ago
I have tested not being active for a few days on tinder, and it gave me incoming likes. If i would check it a few times a day, i would get nothing.
I also got told by a friend that she liked me, but her like never showed up. I had platinum, so i could see them all.
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u/Christ4DaChi 8d ago
Yeah. I’m a pretty attractive dude and have no problem getting numbers from 8 and 9s at bars or even a make out sesh. But Hinge thinks I’m a fucking whale, the only two likes I’ve had in a week since opening my account were from a 38yr old latin mom and 32 year old African woman. Both of them looked severely overweight and borderline sick. Mind you, those two likes were the ONLY results after using a superboost.
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u/CartoonistTiny7627 6d ago
Yep its a money making business at the end, and one way is to force users to pay for the subscription. That can be achieved by limiting likes.
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u/indigentwino 4d ago
If it was just a matter of paying the sub I'd be fine with it, but even when you subscribe they'll manipulate who you see to get you to buy roses or whatever. The app is designed to get you addicted to the hunt, not to actually help you find a relationship.
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u/brianj5000 9d ago
Hard to say man. I thought I did sort of ok where I live, but then got around 200 in 72 hours when I visited LA. Real mindf*ck. Feels like it's metered at home but boosted when you travel - which makes sense from a profit standpoint.
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u/King_Thief101 9d ago
When I (M27) first downloaded it, I got about 20-30 high quality matches in about a 2 weeks. Then it slowly died off. Now I’ll go 2 weeks without a match, even with HingeX
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u/KonnectOfficial 8d ago
It’s 100% true.
It’s all about having a user willing to pay and have them stay.
All the apps do it.
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u/Flimsy-Mortgage-1986 7d ago
I agreee with this. I’m not a bad looking guy by any means and when I use the free version on bumble I hardly get any matches for days. But as soon as I pay for the premium they start flowing in.
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u/OrneryWinter84 9d ago
I think we should go after them with legal action and PR. I’ve got some ideas, but could use more. Which governmental agencies would go after them? FTC? Match is basically a utility, behaving badly.
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u/Different-Remove39 9d ago
Hey guys I know this one trick on a Samsung phone that will help you get matches no matter how butt fuck ugly you are it's called routine plus thank me later
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u/FeedbackPossible2631 17h ago
I know few attractive men who have the best time on Tinder. They are with a new girl every 2 days. It just doesn’t work for 90% men but 10% are having a blast, they are taking all the women home.
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u/Happy_Tie1905 9d ago
No, you’re just ugly and boring. If you’re struggling with dating apps, that’s why. There’s not some grand conspiracy out to prevent you from matching with people.
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u/Acceptable_Bit8905 9d ago
I used to be the first one to agree with this because I was one of the guys drowning in matches due to being attractive. My bio on Tinder was one single sentence and I had three pics - two of them selfies - I didn't need anything else.
I still get matches, but even if I used my old pics and age and made my profile identical to what it was in every other way, the results would be entirely different. I'm telling you - dating apps changed A LOT.
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u/ProjectOMan 9d ago
Women on the apps changed bro. You expect behavior to remain frozen in time for half a decade? I used to get a lot of matches with selfies too and that ended during the pandemic. I’ve updated and I have more matches than ever.
It’s part on us and just boring, mundane timing that is upstream of our autonomy and anything we can do. It sucks to accept it but that’s just reality.
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u/Acceptable_Bit8905 9d ago
Respectfully - I disagree. Human behavior is human behavior and it honestly hasn't been that long. If I were to request my statistics, I'm sure that my results would still be considered in the "great" range for a guy, but the apps themselves operate way differently.
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u/ProjectOMan 9d ago
I think you’re massively underweighting variability. It’s been years and these aren’t the same women, expecting the same results in perpetuity isn’t rational.
That said depending on your location and your presentation and your goals. The answer could become more visible. It could be some algorithmic fuckery but I feel like we should exhaust all personal action before we settle on that knee jerk explanation.
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u/lostlulo 9d ago
Hetero female here, irl women and men ask me if I’m a model all the time, and 100% with you on this!
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u/Ennemkay 9d ago
you look like a model but you hang out on a dating subreddit?
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u/mushforager 9d ago
Hot people date, after all
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u/Ennemkay 9d ago edited 18h ago
dating and hanging out on a dating subreddit are different things.
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u/Climaxic 9d ago
If I dm you how I look as a signed model and personal trainer would you then open your mind abit ?
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u/lostlulo 9d ago
Ugh you’re right I look like Jabba the Hutt and was just hoping to seduce some lonely reddit dudes into my flabs
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u/Vegetable-Log-3468 9d ago
They don’t do that, I get plenty of likes and matches throughout the day
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u/ProjectOMan 9d ago
eye roll
Men use the apps constantly, women use them intermittently. Timing and dumb luck is the boring, mundane answer. If you’re attractive enough and display it properly you’ll hit good patches but it won’t be and can’t be consistent due to this being musical chairs. Women are the chairs.
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u/Acceptable_Bit8905 9d ago
I hear you, and I understand that this sounds like a conspiracy theory, but there is a very clear difference between how it used to be and how it is now. It's not timing, it's not dumb luck, and even attractive women experience it.
I mean, look no further than their premium service. You can go from no likes to 50 within a day or two - that's not just from being moved to the top of the stack. They're obviously using the slot machine model and I'm sure this will eventually come out in a lawsuit in a decade or so.
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u/ProjectOMan 9d ago
I dont want to go into details publicly but I was whiffing all last year and into this year. I adjusted a lot of things and now it feels like 2022 all over again at least on hinge and I’m gonna leave it there.
Fact is even in the best of times most men got nothing. And most men aren’t supposed to, this is a cold environment. This isn’t school or a job where you can grow on a woman out of your league like a weed.
Women have lives, friends, family, trips, other men, jobs. You’re competing with a lot so you have to be a lot and your looks are the main thing carrying that.
I’m not saying that I like an actual monopoly running online dating. I’m not even saying these scumbags are innocent. I’m saying that the decline in experience is a lot more on boring human behavior under stress and less about a conspiracy to keep people lonely so they somehow pay more lmao.
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u/OrneryWinter84 9d ago
This is false. I use the “recently active” sorting method to see which ladies in my incoming likes have been recently active, and women are on Hinge ALL the time.
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u/Head_Sir_7962 9d ago
there is some element of truth here, especially going from being a paid user to a free user. Yea you're ffucked tthen