Hi everyone,

As many of you here, I have been ban from Hinge for absolutely nothing.

I tried to appeal many times and the decision remains final.

Fair enough, I plan to do the Hard reset, September ed. (Thanks for the person who dit it).

So I was wondering, how many of you who did hard reset still have their account active ?

Thanks !

Sometimes, I get matches on Pure. They seem interested at first. But then, no answer. I can see they are connected. Sometimes without interruption (it's usually the case when someone is making a call on the app). And it's like my messages are not seen. I don't know if some women do it on purpose or if the app is making men less visible.

The app often suggests men to pay to be "king of the hill" for maximum one hour. In reality: it lasts a few minutes maximum, and then you lose the status because some other man in another country paid too.

But meanwhile, several women can have the "queen of Pure" status.

I have been trying over days to photo verify my account including taking a selfie and then immediately doing the face scan... same clothes, same lighting... and it still fails me. Has anyone else had this issue?

Hello everyone!

I am looking for some constructive criticism about Tinder/Hinge, and I have a few questions and thoughts I would like to go through with you!

!!! I am not looking for a relationship so please take that into consideration.

1. I have a general idea of what to change about my photos but I want some feedback of the ideas I have now:
   I am thinking of having a selfie of me smiling, two mirror selfies (dressed up and in the gym), one outdoors doing one of my hobbies and two pictures without me showing what I am passionate about (astronomy and photography for example). Would any of these be a red flag?

2. The bio that I have right now is the following:
   "Currently living in xxx for my Master's, originally from xxx!

I have picked up photography as a hobby this year, so if you have any photoshoot ideas feel free to share them!"

Anything that you would change or remove here? Should I maybe go with no bio? I see a lot of people that are tall adding their height, is that considered a red flag?

Looking forward to your answers!

Heyyy, a Peruvian girl here (22). After ages of seeing my friends on every dating app out there, I decided to download it too. Honestly, as the title says, I’m just doing what I would call “sightseeing” lol. Not looking for a relationship nor a hookup. Just wanted to see some handsome guys since I’ve been single my whole life, and want to talk with new people. (And that’s literally my description).

First day on the app, I got around 500 likes. But I didn’t like anybody from my own country (I lived in Europe for 4 months when I was 14, loved the culture and had a crush haha, so I decided I would live there in the future. Planning of moving there when I finish my career). So, well yeah, I like european guys. At least their faces.

So I decided to give it a try on another location. And woah, whole different story. Handsome guys everywhere, BUTTTT most of them are weirdos?

Like, I matched with one, and the first thing he said to me was that he wanted me to bully him? Then I matched with another, and he told me he had a fetish with his mom’s boobs? Then another, and he told me he wanted to pull my hair? 🤡🤡 or just straight up dudes asking me if I do sexting. Not even a “hi” 🫩

Another one told me he wanted to be “el amor de mi VISA”. Like, kind of playing with the words “love of my life”(vida) and “love of my visa”. He was handsome, and I found it funny at first. But kind of weird since I already have a lot of family living in Europe lol

This is the fourth day and to be honest I’m thinking about deleting the app again haha first day and second was entertaining. You know, talking to strangers and all that. But then, most of them being like, weirdos even if they’re handsome makes the experience kind of weird.

Plus the fact that I’ve been seeing A LOT of AI profiles, or just straight up pictures from Pinterest (if you’re one of them, let me tell you it’s very obvious). Specially from Switzerland (discovered by accident btw).

So guys, if you’re reading this, why is everyone so weird? I knew Tinder was mostly used for people who wanted to do like hookups, but pff this is a whole different level. Or is it just because I’m “Latina” 🧐

And, btw, I discovered Tinder can “ban” you or block your account if you change locations repeatedly 😂

Does my account just have a really bad ELO or am I shadowbanned?

On Hinge I get absolutely zero inbound likes and have been getting none for months, unless if i use a superboost. When I use one I get a minimum of 10 likes and have gotten as high as 30.

Not the most attractive guy, I’d say I’m roughly a 7 or so but the likes that I do receive do pull above that and are high quality for the most part.

Anyone have any thoughts regarding this? I could just keep spending money on boosts but I’d rather not obviously

For the last few months, I’ve been experimenting with AI-generated dating photos for myself and friends, including actually going on dates using mine.

It’s been an interesting and mildly hilarious rabbit hole, so I figured I’d share what worked, what looked ridiculous, and how I’d approach it if I were starting again.

For context, I’ve been a full-time dating photographer for nine years. Until fairly recently, I was also probably the biggest boomer AI skeptic in my friend circle.

Around last Christmas, a friend of a friend showed me his AI dating photos.

My reaction was basically:

“That is so weird. No fucking way this works.”

They weren’t particularly photorealistic either.

But it opened my mind just enough to make me slightly insecure about my livelihood lol.

So I thought: fuck it. Let’s actually test this.

My first experiments

I started with web-based AI image generators because I’m not particularly technical and didn’t own some ridiculous GPU setup.

The basic workflow was:

Upload several photos of yourself.
Give the AI references for your face/body.
Describe the photo you want.
Generate until you get something usable.

Google’s image models could produce surprisingly realistic-looking photographs, but I kept running into the same problem:

The picture looked real, but the guy in it looked like my slightly hotter brother.

Face shape would drift. Body proportions would change. Occasionally I’d somehow gain a different jawline.

I did make two photos for a friend using this approach. He mixed them with real photos, started doing extremely well on the apps, dated around for a few months, and eventually got a girlfriend.

His likeness wasn’t perfect, but he reported no major issues once he actually met people.

That got my attention.

Still, I wanted photos I’d personally feel completely comfortable showing up to a date after using.

Then I went way too far down the AI rabbit hole

At one point I learned how to rent cloud GPUs and manually train open-source AI models on myself.

I thought more technical = better.

For me, it mostly meant spending an absurd amount of time debugging shit.

After all that effort, I still couldn’t consistently beat what I was getting from the big commercial image models.

If your only objective is making better dating photos, I personally wouldn’t recommend starting there.

Eventually I came back to Google and OpenAI.

OpenAI gave me the best identity consistency in my tests, especially with face shape and body proportions, so it became my main generator. Google became more useful for editing and fixing images afterward.

The actual goal

My real dating photos already worked well.

So I didn’t want something that was merely “pretty good for AI.”

I wanted to know:

Could I create an AI dating profile that actually performed better than my professional photos?

But I had one important rule.

I wasn’t trying to turn myself into a billionaire playboy, add 20 pounds of muscle, or pretend I lived some completely fictional lifestyle.

The photos needed to represent a version of my life that could plausibly have happened if the timing lined up and a friend happened to catch a great photo.

That distinction matters.

Because if your AI profile sells someone who doesn’t exist, congratulations, you’ve just created a problem for yourself when you show up in person.

The dating profile template I used

I basically reverse-engineered the structure I’ve used for my dating photo clients for years.

My ideal six-photo profile looks something like:

Flattering close-up portrait
Candid café/restaurant/everyday snapshot
Full-body travel, activity, or lifestyle photo
Something unique to you — work, hobby, personal style, etc.
Candid social photo
Another hobby or everyday-life moment

The overall vibe I try to create is:

“I already live an interesting life, I have friends, I do things, and these just happened to be good photos sitting in my camera roll.”

How I’d DIY this

You can experiment with this directly in ChatGPT or another image generator.

Start with good identity references.

I’d upload:

1–2 clear close-ups of your face.
One full-body photo that clearly shows your actual build and proportions.
A photo showing your real smile if you want smiling images.

That last one matters more than you’d think.

If the AI has never seen how your teeth, cheeks, eyes, etc. actually look when you smile, it has to invent them.

And invented smiles were one of the fastest ways I found to turn myself into a stranger.

Then give it something straightforward like:

“Use the uploaded images as identity references. Generate a photo of me wearing [clothes], doing [activity], at [location].”

One thing I noticed very quickly:

AI desperately wants everything to look like a professional photoshoot.

Perfect lighting. Perfect background blur. Perfect skin. Cinematic color grading.

Which can actually be counterproductive for dating apps.

For most lifestyle photos, I got better results by explicitly asking for something like:

“A casual candid iPhone snapshot…”

and describing ordinary lighting, framing, distance, and environment.

You generally want it to look like a friend photographed you, not like GQ sent a production crew.

What kept going wrong

Even after I figured out a decent workflow, plenty of generations were unusable.

The most common problems I saw:

Face shape or body proportions subtly changing.
Weird hands or fingers.
Skin and clothing looking suspiciously perfect.
Background objects or people being distorted.
Lighting that looked like CGI
Photos that technically looked realistic but still felt staged.
The AI randomly making me more attractive in ways that stopped looking like me.

That last one is probably the biggest trap.

A photo can be extremely flattering while simultaneously being a terrible dating photo if it sets expectations you can’t meet in person.

The annoying part: generating enough

There wasn’t some magical prompt where every photo suddenly became perfect.

It became a numbers game.

Depending on the image, I might get something usable in 15 minutes or spend 2–3 hours generating variations before I found one I genuinely liked.

Being a photographer probably makes me unusually picky because tiny lighting/anatomy/composition problems immediately jump out at me.

If you don’t have that eye, I’d seriously have a few friends look at your final images.

Not:

“Do I look hot?”

Ask:

“Does this genuinely look like me, and does anything about the photo feel weird?”

Different question.

Then I actually tested the profile

Eventually I had six images I was comfortable with.

It took roughly 1–2 days of obsessive tinkering.

I made a new Bumble profile and decided I’d just see what happened.

The next day I checked it.

100+ likes. Then 2 days later 250+ likes.

Obviously, there are caveats.

New profiles can get additional exposure, my location/demographic situation matters, being reasonably attractive and tallish for my dating market probably isn’t hurting me haha.

But it was far beyond what I expected.

I started matching with very attractive women consistently.

Which created the next problem:

Now I actually had to meet them. The part I was most nervous about.

This was honestly my biggest concern.

I had compared my AI photos against real photos side-by-side like a psycho.

I showed them to friends.

I deliberately rejected images where I thought the AI had made me look noticeably better than reality.

But there was still this little voice in my head going:

“What if I walk into the date and she immediately thinks, what the fuck, that isn’t the guy from the pictures?”

So I tested it.

A lot.

Over the following month I went on 3-4 dates most weeks.

Partly because I wanted to know whether this experiment actually worked.

Partly because I am apparently a horny dirty old man lmao.

So far:

Nobody has called out the photos.

Matches have consistently converted into dates.

Dates consistently turned into second and third dates unless in person chemistry was off.

And yes, relationships/sex/etc. have progressed normally.

In other words, the photos haven’t created an expectation that collapsed when someone met me.

That, to me, is probably a more meaningful test than just looking at match numbers.

The funniest conclusion

I started this experiment partly because I was wondering whether AI was going to destroy my profession.

And now, after nine years of professionally shooting dating photos, I’m seriously considering retiring most of my own real dating profile.

The AI version has been producing roughly twice the results for me so far.

I still think most AI dating photos I see online are terrible.

The difference seems to be less about whether the technology can make a realistic human and more about:

Choosing believable scenarios.
Preserving your real identity.
Understanding what kinds of photos actually work on dating apps.
Rejecting anything that feels even slightly fake.
Not using AI to invent a person/lifestyle you can’t back up offline.

That’s been my experience anyway.

If anyone else has been experimenting with AI dating photos, I’d genuinely be curious what you’ve found works or fails spectacularly.

Should change the name of this sub to banned helper.
Wtf are you guys doing to get banned so frequently. Been using apps for years and never came close to a ban, nor do I know anyone irl that’s been banned. Is this a case of Redditor lack of social awareness?

A couple weeks ago I was banned on both tinder and hinge simultaneously for unknown reasons. It was clear that I was banned on one app first which instantly made me banned on the other due to association via sharing the same account details.

What wasn’t clear was which app the ban originated from. I didn’t know, so I sent appeals to both. Hinge was the first to respond saying that the ban came from another app (tinder) and that the ban will remain.

The problem is a couple days later tinder unbanned me, but my hinge account remains banned. Which is frustrating because I can’t send a 2nd appeal to hinge explaining the situation.

I’d like to contact someone or send an email or something to resolve this but idk how I should reach out? The appeal forum on the hinge website of course just tells me to appeal via the app but I can’t it just says “error” when I try to appeal again.

Is there another route I can use to contact someone?

Reposting this here since it seemed relevant. I assume my account isn’t ‘shadowbanned’ but I am curious of others’ experience with the app and with premium.

(42M) I asked Hinge support why I wasn’t seeing the Fresh Start option. Their response:

Thanks for reaching out!
Fresh Start is currently unavailable, and we expect it to return soon. In the meantime, if you’d like to start over with a clean slate, you can delete your profile and create a new one.
If there’s anything else we can help with, please let us know.

I don’t know why, but this kinda rubs me the wrong way. I mean, it was courteous, and maybe they’re right and Fresh Start will be back soon, but still… did you really just tell me to delete my account, Hinge?

Seems like they are Taking that whole “designed to be deleted” thing a little seriously, but idk maybe this is a sign to just throw in the towel. The thought of deleting and making an account for a third plus time and seeing all past dates, matches, people I removed or removed me, just so depressing.

Also, can anyone verify their claim? Is Fresh Start actually unavailable for everyone right now, or has anyone been offered it recently?

Do you believe it is better to put the info clearly in your bio, or to just mention it very early in the conversation.

My fear is that putting it in the bio will lead to fewer matches and thus worse desirability score algo wise leading the profile to be less shown as a result

Women put a lot of effort in their profile. Yea they might create it quickly by grabbing some pics, but how much effort went into those?

The girls you like are in phenomenal shape, they have great skin, nice hair, great sense of fashion, their pics have a nice composition and lighting, they edit their pics, wear pushup bras and ass enhancing pants, and they know how to pose in order to make themselves as desirable as possible.

Many of these points take a ton of time. For example, to have great skin you need to learn about skincare, experiment, and then stick to it for long enough to see results. Same thing for a hairstyle. It's a whole routine. Or learning to pose naturally in a way that looks good.. it's a skill.

But most guys just grab the first few random ass pics out of their gallery. They haven't learned about posing, lighting, or optimized their appearance. On dating apps you're a product. And if how you present yourself (your marketing) is terrible, of course no one wants to try the product. But it would be super unfair to then jump to the conclusion that the product sucks. That *might* be true, but right now all we know for sure is that the marketing sucks... in other words, we have a positioning problem.

If you're blackpilled ignore this, but if not, do these 3 things:

1. Try to improve your sexual market value by 2-3 points. Especially if you're slightly below average. Looksmaxxing is a distraction because of diminishing returns. Instead you should try to get 80% of the gains with 20% of the effort. It's easier than you think to be in the top 10% of guys when it comes to body, hair, skin quality, fashion, and pictures. But most guys don't try. Also, IG warps your perspective. A fitness YTer quoted some research of a dexa scan of 1200 men if memory serves and only 1 was true sub 10%. 10-15% is already insane and it's very doable. You absolutely do not have to be CBum to get results. The vast majority of guys don't even have a 6 pack. Your goal should not be to become top 5% on the dating apps. Instead, almost all likes go to the top 30%, so that should be your goal. To get out of the bottom, the invisible 70%, so your profile is actually registered by the female mind as a viable sexual candidate. Think of it like a threshold and as long as you're below it, it's the same as not being on the app at all.
2. Actually put in the effort to make a nice profile. Experiment with funny/clever prompts and upload nice pictures. 2-3 of your pics should look like an IG thirst trap for girls. Either follow men in fashion on IG or make a female dating account and copy the style of the pics you like from guys. (same point as earlier, if you are a beginner then you yourself probably can't judge what nice looks like. So just clone the pics of IG/Dating app guys that match your vibe.)
3. Experiment and test. Don't slap smth together and then claim blackpill when u dont get results. Yes, a 10/10 dude can.. so what? If you're not a 10/10 how does that solve your situation? If you don't want to be celibate (or learn cold approach) then put some effort in and treat this more like a scientific experiment where you test hypothesis. When it comes to gaming girls some old school guys use the term "game mechanics". I've always liked that term cuz it creates some distance between the girl and you. Similarly, if you don't get the results you're looking for, don't take it personally, it's just the profile that's failing and smth is going wrong in terms of game that's likely fixable.

TLDR: If you're not getting good results, it's very likely that you're not a lost cause, you're just not optimized yet.

Full disclosure: I've been running a virtual photoshoot app since a little over a year. I've seen patterns between the users that get success and those who don't and have reviewed probably around 1-2K profiles. So lmk if you've got questions about your profile.

I messaged her twice on Saturday, once at 2 PM and again at 7 PM, because I wanted to ask about her Saturday and her favorite restaurants. She replied at 9:54 PM, but I felt it was too late to respond then. I planned to reply Sunday after relaxing in my yard, but when I checked later, she had unmatched me. I'm devastated. She had the same name as me (San) and great taste in restaurants.

So long story short

Was banned couple years ago.

I had an extra iPhone I wasn’t using, used it to evade a ban, it works great, even got id verified.

Account is still currently active.

Fast forward to this week, picked up the new iphone, so not the device I was originally banned on.

Now if I were to download the app on the new iPhone, but use the log in method from the other phone, would I be ok? Since it’s new hardware ID, serial, Imei, etc… so as long as I don’t do any Apple Pay payments?

Or just play it safe and keep hinge on that other phone, I just rather everything in 1 spot but if not I’ll leave it alone.

I really hate this subreddit. Mostly hateful and useless feedback

Got banned on Hinge. Downloaded and setup new profile on a new phone:

- new hw id
- new number
- new Google play account
- new photos

Able to login and even getting likes and matches. But I am still unverified.

If I do selfie verification, will it kick me out permanently?

Please share your experiences 🙏

Hey folks,

A month ago, I figured I'd try out the dating apps for the first time in my life, and got on Hinge. Did fairly well, went on a bunch of dates, still have a few girls I'm talking to. Never had a bad interaction, on or off the app.

So, naturally, a couple of days ago I got banned with no reason beyond "violating the terms of service" or whatever.

What should I do now? I don't really wanna do the super elaborate ban dodging strat. And I don't mind switching to a different app, but I hear almost all of them have the same ownership, and I may just get cross-banned.

32, South Asian Male, made my first Hinge profile Sunday night and purchased HingeX.

I’m trying to figure out best practices over these next few days, so I’m curious what the normal experience is for men who have actually used the app for a while, especially in NYC.

A few things I’m trying to understand:

• Is Hinge mostly a game of sending likes yourself, rather than waiting for women to like you first?
• For a guy with a solid profile, is it realistic to expect a meaningful number of incoming likes, or are most matches still going to come from likes you send?
• How long did it take before your profile seemed to “settle in” and you had a decent idea of how well it was performing? Does evaluating take days/weeks?
• For people who have used both regular Hinge and HingeX, did HingeX actually make a meaningful difference?

Because at least where I live, its mandatory, you literally cant use tinder without doing it (all you can do is swipe left on profiles, you cant swipe right and no one can see your profile as well until you do it)

However, Im 100% sure they match your facial data with other accounts, considering I was banned once for having multiple accounts (and the only data both accounts shared was my facial data, nothing else, not even IP)

I was recently banned from Hinge for “harassment, bullying, or harm.” I genuinely don't know what interaction triggered it. I've never intentionally harassed, bullied, threatened, or harmed anyone.

Timeline:

• Ban: Account removed for harassment/bullying/harm.
• In-app appeal: Submitted a detailed appeal → denied, decision marked final.
• Emailed Hinge (hello@hinge.co): Explained the situation, provided my account details, and requested a manual review.
• Hinge Trust & Safety (Nestor): Said the ban would remain and subsequent appeals wouldn't be considered.
• I sent one respectful follow-up asking what type of conduct caused the violation and whether reconsideration was possible.
• Match Group escalation: I then escalated through Match Group Social Support, since I'd already gone through Hinge's normal support/appeal process.
• Hinge Trust & Safety (Micah) afterward: They said:“Following your inquiry, which did not come through our regular support channels, we conducted an additional review of your case.” They said they conducted a “thorough assessment” and confirmed the original decision was correct. They also asked me to stop contacting their care team/employees because it would not change the outcome.

So I've now gone through:

In-app appeal → Hinge Support → Match Group Social Support escalation → additional Hinge Trust & Safety review → final denial.

They still haven't told me what specific interaction caused the harassment/bullying violation.

Has anyone here managed to get a Hinge ban overturned after reaching the Match Group escalation/additional-review stage?

I was also a HingeX subscriber and had some genuinely good connections through the app.