Hinge finds way to ban ‘ghosting’ on app to defeat dating burnout: ‘Focus on quality over quantity’
No more boohooing, Hinge is now ghostbusting.
The popular dating app recently announced its latest update to ban ghosting and help singles overcome dating app fatigue.
Hinge’s new “Your Turn Limits” feature will help daters to limit unanswered messages.
The app will now encourage singles with eight or more matches awaiting a response to either reply or end a conversation before making a new connection.
“With the launch of ‘Your Turn Limits’, we’re testing a new way to help our users focus on quality over quantity – keeping intentionality at the core of their dating experience,” Justin McLeod, Founder and CEO of Hinge, said in a statement.
Nearly half (44%) of Hinge daters noted a lack of responsiveness as one of the top issues hindering their dating life.
“We’ve heard from daters how they’re feeling overwhelmed, distracted, and, simply put, burnt out. To help alleviate these challenges and get people on more great dates, we’re continuing to identify innovative solutions like ‘Your Turn Limits’,” McLeod said.
“In today’s dating world, it’s become far too normalized for people to send likes liberally and leave their conversations sitting, leading to feelings of dating burnout for people seeking relationships,” Stéphane Taine, Chief Product Officer at Hinge said in the statement.
“With the ‘Your Turn Limits’ test, we’re encouraging daters to keep the momentum going with their current conversations or properly close out a conversation to give the person on the other side the closure they need to continue their dating journey.”
And it’s not just about protecting people’s egos.
Hinge’s research has found that focusing on fewer conversations at a time leads to quicker responses, which increases the likelihood of making it off the app and onto a date.
Matches where the first message was responded to within 24 hours were 72% more likely to result in a date last year.
This comes after McLeod addressed dating app fatigue in an interview with the Financial Times noting the two main reasons for this growing issue.
“One is that you are overwhelmed: there’s so much activity, and so many people, and everyone starts to look the same, and conversations are dying,” he explained.
The other reason, McLeod said, is a lack of reciprocation.
“At the other end of the spectrum, a lot of users get very, very little activity. They burn out because they’re trying to get that match, and they send a lot of likes, but then they’re not even getting enough [reciprocal] activity to go on one date.”
He added, “People want to spend more time out on dates, and less time on the app.”
