How To Answer Popular Hinge Prompts: Part 4
Welcome to the newest chapter of the 25 most popular Hinge Prompts (according to Hinge) and how to answer them. If you want to see the whole list, you can check it out HERE. You can check out our profile tips on prompts 1-15 HERE, HERE, and HERE.
In the last chapter, we went through 11-15 of the list of prompts that Hinge says get the most conversation started. Today, we are going to tackle 16-20
Prompt #16: The Key To My Heart Is
Is this one of my favorite prompts? No. But, that doesn’t mean it can’t be a useful prompt. You just have to remember that tone is important. Hinge is still a swipe app. Things more faster and require a little different approach than traditional datng apps. If you do choose to use this prompt, make sure that your answer is positive and is the kind of thing that could lead to a conversation you’d want to be a part of.
DO: Think about the little things that matter to you. Things that you want to have in common with your partner, things that you really appreciate in other people, and even favorite things in your life that you get excited about when you find out that someone else loves them as much as you do!
DON’T: Make this about feelings or character. Those are very important parts of building a relationship with someone, but they don’t make for a great initial conversation. They can actually hurt you. I’ve seen a lot of people answer this prompt with things like Honesty, integrity, or being good at communication. Those are things you should expect out of any healthy relationship. When you mention them in your profile, it sends a message to people that they were missing in your last relationship, and that you are still healing from the hurt your previous partner caused you. When you’re making a list of first conversations to have with a new match, “What went wrong with my last relationship,” should not be at the top of the list.
Prompt #17: First Round Is On Me If
This prompt is perfect for people with a competitive streak in them. If that’s you, here is your chance to lay out a challenge (within reason), and see how people react to the gauntlet that you’ve thrown. The real challenge here is to thread the needle between going too small for anyone to care, and going so big that your challenge feels unrealistic.
DO: Have fun with this prompt. This is a good chance for you to use your imagination and think about a challenge that you’d want to put out to a potential partner. It could be athletic, it could be food-based, it could even be style-based. The sky is really the limit here. I’ve seen people use answers ranging from “If you can beat me in a best two-out-of-three 8-ball tournament,” to “If you can beat me at Mario Party,” all the way to challenges like “If you can eat more wings than me,” or “If you can tell me which movie Spider-Man is the best… and there is only one right answer!”
DON’T: Pick this prompt if you don’t consider yourself a competitive person. Not everyone likes to compete. A lot of people prefer to coexist peacefully. If you’d rather have a chat than a debate, and the idea of losing a game or a bet doesn’t cause a little twinge in the back of your mind, this is not the prompt for you. Also, this is an awful prompt for people who do not drink. When answering the prompt, it can be easy to focus on the challenge aspect and completely forget about the drinking part. However, when someone reads your prompt answer, the first thing they see is that “The first DRINK” is on you.
Prompt #18: What If I Told You That
This is one of the most widely misused prompts on this list, but it can be a great way to jumpstart a conversation if you don’t blow it. It is another one of the prompts where tone and direction is key. If you go too far into an emotionally heavy direction, or too far into the the realm of nonesense, you can easily put people off and cause them to swipe left. The key is to remember that you are starting a conversation. You aren’t just trying to flirt.
DO: Focus on fun! You can go in a couple of different directions with this prompt. You can either make it about something interesting you love, or you can make it about you. Either way, you want to give an interesting enough fact to the reader that they’d be curious to know more. If it’s about you, don’t just talk about normal achievements. No one is going to be impressed with “I went to college,” or “I used to be in a band.” But, if you have something more unique like “I went to college when I was 12,” or “I made it to the third round on America’s Got Talent,” it is worth including. If your fact isn’t about you, just make sure it is something genuinely interesting that you care about. A lot of people try to cheat this prompt by Googling (or asking ChatGPT) for an interesting fact. That leaves you with a fact that not only doesn’t even interest you, but that the reader has probably already seen on several other profiles.
DON’T: Flirt. The number of people I’ve seen who have answered this prompt with something like “You take my breath away,” or “You have the most beautiful smile I’ve ever seen,” infuriates me. Lines like this died in the bars during the early 1980s. Other big mistakes I’ve seen is when people use this prompt to share their “political truth,” or a conspiracy theory that they are passionate about. Answers like that are huge red flags that send people running in the opposite direction.
Prompt #19: I’m Weirdly Attracted To
This can be a great prompt, because it gives you a chance to show off some of the more unique aspects of your personality. As a result, it gives the reader a chance to read your answer and have an instant “They are looking for me!” moment. Connection points like that in your profile can make the difference between getting a left-swipe, or getting a message.
DO: Think about things you love, but that maybe not everyone around you appreciates as much as you do. Maybe you have a really dark sense of humor. You aren’t just going to answer the prompt with “I’m weirdly attracted to people with a good sense of humor.” Instead, you would do something like “I’m weirdly attracted to people with a sense of humor so dark, that they make you question your own morals when you laugh at their jokes.” Also, it doesn’t have to be about a quality that they have. It could be about an actual thing. If you are a massive Star Wars fan, you could use an answer like “I’m weirdly attracted to people who know why you should never tell me the odds.” You could even make it about food with a prompt like, “I’m weirdly attracted to people who always pull into the parking lot when they see the ‘Hot Doughnuts Now!’ sign.
DON’T: People make two big mistakes on this prompt. The first one is that they make it about appearance. I’ve seen tons of responses where people say tattoos, ear lobes, muscles, feet, facial hair, long legs, and pretty much any other body part you can think of. Unless your attraction to these things is so strong that they have reached a fetishistic level, there’s nothing all that weird about them. However, pointing them out as something you are weirdly attracted to can make you sound like a fetishist. The other way people fail is by selecting things that aren’t weird. “I’m weirdly attracted to a great sense of humor,” “I’m weirdly attracted to honesty,” these are just a couple of the answers I’ve seen people using… before they call me for help. In the absence of having something they are actually weirdly attracted to, a lot of people just put a quality they want in a partner. It’s a waste of a prompt and a blown chance at a conversation.
Prompt #19: My Love Language Is
The Five Love Languages feel like ancient wisdom to man people, but they’ve only been around since a self-help guru wrote a book about them in 1992. If you aren’t familiar with them, they include words of affirmation, quality time, physical touch, acts of service, and receiving gifts. While they don’t have any scientific backing, they have become part of the lexicon of dating and relationships over the last three decades. If handled properly, they can make for an excellent prompt great start to a conversation.
DO: Use the love languages as a jumping-off point without using them by name. The ideas behind the love languages are solid, but the actual terms are too “self-helpy.” Instead, pick the language that fits you best and use that to illustrate your love language. For example, if I had to pick an actual love language for myself, it would be Acts of Service. But, I would never put that in my profile. Instead, I would put nachos. I love nachos, and I take it seriously. It isn’t just chips and cheese in the microwave. When I make nachos, it takes several hours, and I cook all the individual parts. As a result, I only cook nachos for people I care about, and those people can taste how much I care with every bite.
DON’T: Just answer the question with one of the love languages without adding additional context. Honestly, as we talked about in the “DO” section of this prompt, I would avoid using the actual love languages at all. When you use terms from a self-help book and add them to your profile, it gives a strong, “self-help” vibe to your personality. It is one thing to show yourself as a growth-oriented person. People love that. However, they tend to look at a “self-help vibe,” as someone who isn’t growing yet, but in the process of healing.
Check back in a couple of days for our final chapter and tips on prompts #21-25!
If you need help creating the perfect Hinge profile, give me a call at 888-447-7634, or check out our Hinge Profile writing service.
Online dating doesn’t have to be a numbers game. When you grind through matches, hunting for “the one,” all you do is burn yourself out, cause a lot of unnecessary failures, and find yourself on first dates that don’t go anywhere. It’s time to stop thinking about the kinds of people you’d be OK going on first dates with, and start thinking about the kinds of people with whom you get excited about going on tenth dates!
