YOUR DATING APP PHOTO: DOs and DON'Ts

(April, 2017) The dating app Hinge sifted through thousands of their users’ photos and figured out what gets likes and what gets ignored. The company tagged thousands of randomly selected photos with 35 different labels (for example: hair up vs. down). The basic takeaway is that you should pick photos that highlight the real you, in your natural state, doing something that you love. Here are some of the things they found:
– Skip sunglasses, Snapchat filters, anything that obscures your face or eyes.
– Don’t post a picture that features other people who could easily be mistaken for a significant other.
– Posing on a beach also made a photo much less likable.
– Using a photo in which you’re engaged in some kind of athletic activity was super appealing. For women, sports photos were 166 percent more likely to get liked; for men, they were 45 percent.
– Candid shots got 15 percent more likes than posed pictures.
– Black and white photos got 106 percent more likes.
– Selfies are a turn-off. Regular selfies were liked 40 percent less. Bathroom selfies were 90 percent less liked.
– For women, smiling in a way that shows your teeth made you 76 percent more likely to get a like.
– Looking away from the camera upped likes by 74 percent.
– Standing alone increased likes by 69 percent.
– Ladies, wearing you hair up boosts your likes by 27 percent.
– For men, looking straight into the camera makes you a whopping 102 percent more likely to get liked. Smiling so as not to show off your teeth was preferred, upping your chances by 43 percent.
* Whatever happened to the old rule, “Don’t be ugly?”
* Bathroom selfies were 90% less liked? Not the ones I’ve seen.
* Seen by accident, by the way.
* Where do they stand on wet t-shirts?
* The good news? Apparently you can still Photoshop the crap out of your picture.
* No Snapchat filters? But I look so great with a tiara and big fake eyelashes.
* So you can date on Hinge but you better hope your date isn’t unhinged.
* Sure, highlight the real you. That’ll work great.