Hinge Review: One New Dating App, Four First Dates

Ah, yes, leave it to me to fall in love with yet another online dating site.

This time, Hinge is my victim. Well, it’s not a site, but of a dating app and if you recall some of our contributors were at the Chicago launch party.

What is Hinge?

Hinge is a dating app connected to Facebook that matches you with 6-12 people every day that are Facebook friends of your Facebook friends. Although more often than not there’s this sneaky thing that Hinge does where it connects you with friends of friends of friends a.k.a. a third degree connection. I like that these are real people – though every dude I’ve met off of other sites (and there are many) I’ve been on have been real, but the fact that someone I know knows this guy I’m chatting to, makes it *seem* better. With each match, you click a heart for yay! I think you’re cute enough or X for sorry, buddy, you aren’t doing it for me. If there’s a double heart, you can chat.

So far this chatting has gotten me 4 dates. In a week. I’m a steamroller through every site I ever go on. I get bored easily with sites because they don’t produce Mr. Wonderful, so I just date in a flurry then get off the site, waiting patiently for the next big thing.

Date 1

Was with a very nice guy (read between the lines of very nice guy…that means I have no other adjectives for which to describe him), but I’m a snob. He called Asia the Orient and didn’t know that Tokyo was in Japan. Now I’m no geographer, but this is basic stuff. He also continued to use cop lingo in our conversations (locked up and “the zone” amongst them). I swear, I do want to meet a nice guy, but if nice is the only word I can use to describe a date, then he isn’t the right one for me.

Date 2

Was hilarious and we got along splendidly. Despite there being an obvious height difference and the fact that the date had to start in a standing room only bar (read: I stood two inches taller and we had to notice it every time we looked at one another), the date was great! Until…he texted 12 hours later that he only wanted something casual aka a “casual-esque-thinga-ma-bob” (that’s verbatim, my friends). Yea, um I can’t get married to a casual-esque-thinga-ma-bob. My parents would kill me.

Date 3

Led into a second date on the same day. We met for afternoon drinks, had so much fun during our five-hour first date that we decided to meet up after dinner (he had previous dinner plans). We hung out for another three hours and made plans for another date soon. Sometimes online sites can surprise you, especially when there is so little information to go on. The only things you can see on Hinge are photos, a few descriptive words chosen by the suitor, sometimes the height (if they decide to put it there), place of employment, and who you’re connected through. The fact that we could get along so well with so little information is pretty amazing. Now, I’m not hanging my hat on this one (because we all know where that gets ya!), but my faith in Hinge has been satiated with this guy.

Date 4

Never happened. It was all set up, then both of us got skeptical. He revealed a few days before we were meant to meet that he was 5’5”; I’m 5’8”. Not that it’s the biggest deal in the world, especially if everything else is really great, but the guy basically told me that he was self-conscious and that I wouldn’t like that he was so short. We left it at that and didn’t continue our plans.

Hinge Review: Two Weeks Later…

My final Hinge review? I can safely say that it didn’t suck. I like the fact that if you’re not interested, they can’t contact you (see my recent POF communcation and how awesome it was). The main complaint I have is the lack of communication; you’d think that I’d be okay with that after POF, but I’ve been matched with plenty of guys and probably only 20% actually say anything. I’ve started some communication with the ones I like best, but otherwise it’s slow going on the chatting front. After these three (or was it four?) dates, I have no other guys that I’ve had more than five messages with, let alone a phone number exchange.

If you’re looking for a casual and easy site, then Hinge might be for you!

Have you had any interesting experiences with Hinge?