There are times when you still want to be on a dating app, but you don’t want anyone to know you’re on a said dating app. Yes, this sounds dodgy, I admit that.
And sometimes you might be reading through your ex’s new profile occasionally rolling your eyes because she certainly wasn’t ‘big into hiking’ when you guys were together, nor was her happy place the yoga studio.
Or maybe you just need a break from the constant pressure of life on apps, but you don’t want to delete anything because you know you’ll be back in, frankly, way too short a time.
And while you don’t want to actually engage in conversation or be in any way proactive about online dating, you may still want to pass the time with some swiping.
No shame in that. Our smartphones basically own us all at this point. Whatever your reason, the question remains, can you go invisible on Hinge?
The short answer is sort of. Helpful, right? To be more specific, there’s no official way to go invisible on Hinge, but the app itself used to suggest a workaround.
The advice has disappeared since the big redesign but it should still work, Basically, you just have to become an impossibly picky dater!
So, set a one-mile search radius, toggle on all the dealbreakers, and request matches between 90 and 91 years old, over 6 foot 5.
You won’t get anyone on your feed, and you probably won’t turn up in many users’ feeds either. Of course, you might bag yourself an Amazonian OAP, but what’s that but a bonus?
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Can Hinge Users See When You’re Online?
So a match sent you a message, and you like her, but you have somehow allowed the whole day to pass without replying.
Okay, two days! But you were out last night and hungover today and… you know… it happens.
Admittedly, you have been on Hinge during that period. In fact, you’ve been swiping all day today. Is there any chance that Melissa in Queens will have seen that you’re online and now thinks you’re a douche?
Luckily, no. Hinge doesn’t allow users to see when other users are online, and it doesn’t send read receipts either.
So there’s no way Melissa clocked you today as you lay in bed eating cold pizza, swiping, and trying not to remember stopping the Uber to throw up at 2 AM.
Unless, of course, you’ve done something dumb like change one of the prompts on your profile or upload a new picture. That would be a dead giveaway.
You know what though, even if you’ve done that you’re probably fine. Melissa most likely isn’t even thinking about you. She has her own life to live. She had her own Saturday night. Chill out. And remember to keep drinking water!
Can I Temporarily Pause My Hinge Account?
For some of us, pausing our account might be the next step from messing around with settings to go invisible.
Maybe you’ve met someone and it’s going pretty well, and you can’t be bothered pursuing other women right now, but you do not want to jump the gun and delete all the apps.
What if she uses your phone to take a picture or order a pizza and sees they’re all gone? That’s essentially a millennial marriage proposal!
Or maybe you’re starting to see your Hinge feed in your actual dreams and you just need to force yourself into a break. You have a paper to write, or a report to read, or a quarterly report to present on. And you are not doing it, because you are just playing with dating apps!
As you may be able to tell, that latter one really resonates with me… So, can Hinge accounts be temporarily paused?
You’ll be glad to know that Hinge does offer a temporary pause feature.
To pause your account: Tap Settings, tap Account, and toggle the Pause switch to the on position. While paused you won’t get new matches, but you will still be able to chat to the old ones. So, no more swiping, but maybe you can deepen a connection or two?
Does Hinge Hide Inactive Profiles?
The dating gurus and tech bros who work at Hinge are a little shady about this question.
Most dating apps have a clear policy like Bumble’s not showing profiles that have been inactive for 30 days or more.
Hinge is less clear, claiming that in any given feed 75% of the users shown will have been active within 72 hours. That’s a really great, short time period to use, but the 75% has me stumped.
So, if a profile is shown to you, you can be ¾ sure that its owner is still an active user!
From the user end, you will notice that there is further shelving of your presence on Hinge after 30 days. At this point, the app stops sending you notifications if you aren’t using it.
So basically, Hinge definitely has the data on who is and isn’t active, it’s just not totally clear what they do with their info and whether inactive profiles always disappear from view!
It’s a small annoyance in an otherwise pretty great app, though. If you want to find out more about the highs and lows of Hinge then check out my full breakdown – I promise it’s mostly good stuff, and it’s updated with all the changes 2020 brought for the app that’s designed to be deleted.
