I got back on the dating apps yesterday. It’s a decision that I’m still not entirely sure is the right one, but something I’ve been thinking about are bios and prompts — the signals we send out to frame ourselves a certain way, but also filter out other people.

Because different apps have different UI, you might need different approaches to convey the same things.

I’m thinking about Bumble and Hinge, in particular.

Bumble has space for a bio and also three prompts. So you can share some standard information like “I’m a writer, photographer, and plant parent” in your bio, and then write about what you’re looking for in one of the prompts.

Hinge, on the other hand, only has prompts, so you would have to retrofit a bio into a prompt, and because the character-count is limited, there’s only so much you can do.

There’s a new feature (at least to me) on Hinge called Match Note, which lets you write something that will be shown to your match right after you match, and then can choose to either continue, or unmatch before a conversation can begin.

I’m curious about the history of this new feature, and what the intended use-case is. Personally, I find it find kind of useful, in the sense that I can lay some of my cards on the table — be semi-vulnerable, but also not publicly. I’m using it to say, this is what being with me would probably entail, and if that’s not your thing, go ahead and unmatch. No hard feelings.