Hinge: Testing ‘Your Turn Limits’ to Reduce Dating Burnout
Hinge is piloting a new feature called Your Turn Limits that temporarily restricts how many unanswered conversations a user can leave in their inbox, the company told Mashable in a recent report (Mashable).
Under the test, users with eight or more matches awaiting a reply will be unable to like new people until they respond to one or more messages or end the conversation. Hinge plans to run the experiment in the U.S., U.K., Canada and Australia beginning this month, and said it will consider expanding the feature to other markets based on feedback. The restriction will apply to both free and paid accounts.
As users approach the threshold, Hinge will display a banner atop their messages saying they are “approaching the limit” and explaining: “When 8 or more people are waiting for a reply, you need to reply or end chats. Then you can send likes.” Once the limit is reached, the banner changes to “You’re at the limit” and users attempting to like a new profile will see a pop-up that reads, “Too many people are waiting for your reply.”
The move follows other Hinge product work to promote responsiveness, including the app’s 2017 “Your Turn” prompt and last year’s reordering of match lists to put conversations that need replies at the top. Hinge framed Your Turn Limits as the latest effort to “reduce dating burnout” and encourage users to have more substantive back-and-forths before accumulating additional matches.
Hinge researchers reported in the Mashable piece that 44 percent of daters cite lack of responsiveness as a top challenge. Internal data cited in the article also found matches where the first message received a reply within 24 hours were 72 percent more likely to lead to a date.
In an interview with Mashable, Hinge founder and CEO Justin McLeod said he expects the feature to go through a few iterations because it represents a notable change for some users; depending on results, the company will tweak the design or broaden its rollout. He acknowledged the test will affect Hinge’s broader ecosystem: some users who focus on existing conversations may like fewer new profiles and therefore see fewer matches, but McLeod said, “I think we’ll see more conversations and more dates across a broader part of the population.”
The test also arrives shortly after Hinge announced its Hidden Words filter (Hinge’s Hidden Words feature) and amid other industry changes, such as Bumble’s recent suite of updates that CEO Lidiane Jones said responded to user exhaustion with dating apps. Hinge told Mashable its aim with Your Turn Limits is partly to help address that fatigue and promote responsiveness that leads to real-world dates.
