Love at First Listen: Hinge’s New Voice Prompts Bring Daters’ Profiles to Life

Today, Hinge, the dating app "designed to be deleted," is launching a new audio experience, Voice Prompts, to bring users’ profiles to life and build better connections with their matches. Voice Prompts allows users to answer a Prompt through a 30-second voice recording, giving others a glimpse of their personality and what a first date would be like. The new audio experience is now available to all users globally.

“Hinge wants to help people get to know you as soon as they see your profile. If a picture is worth 1,000 words, imagine how many your voice is worth,” said Michelle Parsons, Chief Product Officer at Hinge. “With the introduction of Voice Prompts, we’re adding more authenticity to the profile experience, allowing users to fully display their personality in a new way. Our team’s focus is to introduce product updates that help our daters move from the selfie to new forms of self-expression.”

Feeling a spark with someone can be difficult when limited to just text and photos. In a recent Hinge study, 75% of users said that assessing chemistry is one of the hardest parts of modern dating right now, but 65% of Hinge singles believe hearing someone’s voice would help them determine interest in a match.

“Hearing someone’s voice connects us in ways that seeing a photo or reading a text can’t,” said Logan Ury, Director of Relationship Science. “So it’s not surprising that 52% of Hinge users say they can learn more about a potential match through a voice message. It gives you a chance to check in with yourself early on about what the other person makes you feel, whether that’s chemistry, confusion, or disinterest.”

With the Voice Prompts launch, Hinge is rolling out Prompts tailored to elevate the use of sound. The new Prompts will help users capture moments that are better heard than read, including Prompts such as “proof I have musical talent” and “my best celebrity impression.”

The company is also introducing Voice Notes this fall — making it possible for users to have a conversation that captures their tone and personality while messaging each other. With the addition of Voice Notes and Voice Prompts, people can better showcase who they are through text, photos, video, and now, voice at different points in their dating journey.

How it works

• From the Settings screen, click Edit Profile. Tap ‘Select a prompt’ in the new ‘Voice Prompt’ section to add a Prompt.
• Select a Voice Prompt, such as “best travel story,” to record your response.
• Tap the microphone icon to begin recording for up to 30 seconds.
• Tap the stop button when you’re done recording. You can listen to it before it goes live by pressing the play button.
• Click ‘done’ and your Voice Prompt will be added and displayed under the first picture on your profile.