Evolving Together: How Daters Helped Shape Hinge in 2025

Society and daters’ needs are constantly evolving, and we’re committed to understanding ways we can better meet daters where they are today. 2025 has been an impactful year for Hinge as we’ve brought in new voices, leaders, and technology to evolve our app experience. By gathering feedback from daters and community partners, we’ve deepened our understanding of the biggest hurdles people face – inspiring new features on Hinge that help people make new connections with clarity and confidence.

Opening Up with Each Other About What Matters

The challenge: Daters often share their frustration about profiles sounding the same and blending together. But figuring out what to say in your Prompts isn’t always easy, which leads to one-word or cliché answers. When you’re not specific about what truly matters to you, it’s harder for others to spot compatibility that will lead to a match and an engaging conversation.

How we’re responding: This challenge led us to explore how to help daters open up with each other and get closer to a date.

• In January, Hinge launched Prompt Feedback, an industry-first feature that offers users actionable guidance on how to make their Prompt answers more unique to them. Additionally, we invite daters to share feedback on the tips they receive, which has helped us refine the feature to better recognize nuances like humor and intent.
• This past June, we partnered with renowned psychologist Esther Perel to create a new collection of Prompts – themed ‘Your World’ – that inspire daters to share more about the experiences that shape and move them. From “I could stay up all night talking about…” to “I’m in my element when…,” daters are able to build deeper connections around their interests.
• We’re testing a new feature called Convo Starters that will help daters feel more confident sending thoughtful first messages. When a dater views someone’s profile, they’ll see tailored topic ideas for a message under their Prompts and Photos – making it easier to start an engaging conversation in their own voice.

Why it matters: “Dating today is about showing up as your whole self. We know that opening up, even just a little, can help turn a conversation into a real connection,” said Jackie Jantos, Hinge’s President and Chief Marketing Officer (she/her). “As daters think through what to share and how much to share, we added new experiences to Hinge that help daters be more curious about each other. We want them to imagine, ‘There could be something here with this person.’”

Seeing and Matching With People You’re Compatible With

The challenge: Understanding what makes two people compatible is complex, and we know there’s still important work to be done to help daters narrow down on their choices and discover someone special.

Hinge’s work to support: Earlier this year, we rolled out global changes to Hinge’s core recommendation system in Discover, offering daters more guidance to shape their experience on the app.

• Our updated algorithm uses deep learning to deliver more thoughtful recommendations by better predicting mutual compatibility – contributing to a double-digit increase in matches overall.
• We’re nudging daters in the app to be more open-minded about certain filter preferences, like distance, because their next great date might be just outside what they first imagined. Additionally, we’re educating users about how dealbreakers and selecting “Prefer Not to Say” affect who they are visible to.

Why it matters: “2025 has been an exciting year for Hinge. Along with making meaningful progress in helping daters see more of each other through their profiles, we’ve evolved our algorithm to surface more compatible recommendations,” said Justin McLeod, Hinge’s Founder and CEO (he/him). “Compatibility comes down to so many small, human details – and advancements in technology are helping us better navigate those nuances. Our goal is simple: to help daters meet people they feel genuinely drawn to and make it easier to end up on a great date.”

Focusing on the Connections That Excite You

The challenge: Through our research with daters, we know that a lack of responsiveness and conversations that go nowhere lead to dating fatigue. Even with a great match, it can be difficult to stay focused on the connections in front of you and build momentum to go on a date.

Hinge’s work to support: In 2025, we introduced new tools to help daters better engage with the connections they’re excited about.

• In February, Hinge launched Match Note – a new feature for daters to privately highlight important details about their identity, lifestyle, or relationship preferences before starting a conversation with someone. The feature was inspired by feedback from LGBTQIA+ and neurodivergent daters, who were seeking a dedicated space to offer clarity to matches early on. By aligning on these details from the start, people can focus on connections with true potential.
• We also introduced Chat-Specific Notifications – where daters can choose to only receive alerts for the conversations they’re most excited about.

Why it matters: Features like Match Note and Chat-Specific Notifications help daters focus on the connections that feel most promising to them. In a survey of more than 2,000 daters who tested Match Note, approximately two out of three users said the feature improved their ability to show up authentically and determine compatibility. For those who want to reduce the noise and distractions while dating, these tools help daters build momentum toward going on a date.

Encouraging Positive and Respectful Interactions

The challenge: Every person's communication style is unique, so self-awareness and education are important to helping daters communicate respectfully with each other.

Hinge’s work to support: This year, we introduced new features to foster greater understanding, empathy, and accountability between daters as they connect on Hinge. These updates help make Hinge a positive place to interact, while giving daters deeper transparency around what is expected from the community on our app.

• In early 2025, we introduced Are You Sure? – which encourages users to pause and reflect before sending a message that could be perceived as offensive. Additionally, Did This Bother You? checks in with users about the messages they receive and invites feedback on flagged content, allowing daters’ real experiences to inform and refine what content to filter.
• Comment Filter gives daters more proactive control over the comments they receive with incoming likes by allowing them to create a custom list of words, phrases, or emojis they don’t want to see. In March, we expanded this feature to include new AI-powered filtering that daters can use in addition to their personal list.
• In September, Hinge unveiled a more transparent approach to the moderation of user profiles. Now, when a single piece of content violates our policies, we remove only that content, notify the user of what was flagged and why, and allow them to replace it while keeping the rest of their content intact and their account in good standing. We also rolled out new Community Guidelines to ensure all Hinge policies are accessible and easy to reference.

Why it matters: "Safety is what provides the foundation for people to feel confident showing up as their most authentic selves," said Jeff Dunn, Hinge's Chief Risk Officer (he/him). "We understand that creating a space where daters feel seen, heard, and protected is how we're best able to achieve our mission. That's why we've spent this year investing in new features and tools that make safety an inherent and transparent part of their dating journey."

This year, we’ve made meaningful progress with new features that help daters share more of who they are, connect with more of the people they’re truly compatible with, and build momentum towards in-person dates with greater focus. It’s our goal to empower daters to show up as their true selves and interact safely and respectfully with one another.

As we look ahead to 2026, there’s still a lot of important work to be done. While we may not have all of the answers right now, we’re committed to always learning from daters, understanding what they need, and finding new ways for Hinge to better support them as they navigate what it means to date today.