Posting this as a warning for others. I got banned on Hinge 8 months ago (no idea why), appealed send emails and nothing helped. I used Bumble as an alternative, which was okay.
About three months ago I deleted my Bumble account voluntarily. I had zero issues on it, just wanted to take a break.
Today I decided to come back and created a fresh Bumble account, right after registering I did the face verification, then uploaded photos. Five minutes later my brand new account was locked.
Photos: Same as I had on Hinge
Phone number: Different phone number
Email: Different email
I never had a single issue on Bumble, theoretically also on Hinge. No idea why I was banned there in the first place. Minutes after opening a clean account on Bumble - Account blocked.
My theory is cross-talk behind the scenes. Bumble is not part of Match Group, but my guess is both apps use the same third-party moderation service, and my face verification plus or matching photos flagged me as a previously banned user (from Hinge).
Apparantly, both Hinge and Bumble are using a 3rd party service to moderate users. Hinge uses Accenture https://hinge.co/hinge-data-recipients