I’ve Gone Through All 105 Hinge Prompts. These Are My 10 Favorite Conversation Starters

Starting a conversation on a dating app can be tricky. You don’t have the benefit of being face-to-face, so you want to make sure your tone is friendly, fun and inviting without coming across as too excited. That’s why Hinge—the dating app more oriented towards relationships than hookups—gives you a hand with their fun prompts.

Hinge prompts allow you to showcase your personality outside of your standard bio, taking some of the awkwardness out of starting a conversation. (Not to mention give you an opportunity to hardball—aka say exactly what you’re looking for.) After combing through 105 Hinge prompts, I picked my ten favorites that have been good conversation starters for me on the app. I also spoke with Amie Leadingham, Master Certified Relationship Coach, and Logan Ury, Hinge’s Director of Relationship Science, about their tips for building a strong profile.

At my present count, there are 105 Hinge prompts to choose from. The best Hinge prompts are really whatever you want to share. However, two experts I spoke with did dole out some general advice.

• Skip the small talk. “Your profile should be an extension of your personality, so lean in to both your silly side and your more serious one,” says Logan Ury, author of How to Not Die Alone and Director of Relationship Science at Hinge.
• Get (a little) vulnerable. For example, a prompt like “Fact about me that surprises people” is a great way to burrow under the surface—skip the small talk. “Answering this prompt is excellent because it helps create some vulnerability and is a simple conversation starter,” says Master Certified Relationship Coach Amie Leadingham.
• Don’t be afraid to hardball. When it comes to prompts like “I’m looking for…” Ury says, “It’s not a demand. [Ask] yourself, what’s going on for me right now? Do I want to be in a relationship? Am I looking for something fun? Do I have the time and energy to invest in a long-term partnership?”
• Keep it positive. “Sticking to the positive is always a good thing for answering any online dating questions,” Leadingham says. Coming across as bitter or brutally honest will drive people away.
• Make it easy to have a conversation.  “Think of your profile as your opening line—something your match can respond to or ask a follow-up question about,” Ury says.

Hinge prompts are part of setting up your profile. After you’ve entered your name, narrowed down your location and set your preferences, the app gives you a chance to answer three prompts of your choice under the “Write Your Profile Answers” banner. All Hinge prompts have a 150-character limit, so the idea is to have short, pithy answers that you can elaborate on later. And the word “elaborate” is key here. As a writer and interviewer, I’d say I’m great at making conversation with almost anyone and about anything. However, monosyllabic answers and curt sentences are something even I can’t work with. So if you share something interesting on the app, get ready to dive into it on the date. Great conversation only happens when you pick one of the best Hinge prompts and then give people something to work with.

Voice prompts are the platform’s 30-second audio clips, which people can use to answer a question. Hinge has found that daters prefer voice prompts as a way to get to know a person better before meeting up in real life. To add a voice prompt, go to your profile and find it underneath the photo lineup. You can choose from the general prompt bank of over 100 questions, including “believe it or not, I…” and “I’m convinced that...”. You have 30 seconds to make your case, and other daters can play the clip as they peruse your profile.

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