Despite the fact that people disagree here, the step that matters most is to skip anything asking for a card number to read messages: the difference in reply rate is obvious. The part nobody mentions is that the discovery feed matters quite a lot more than the profile prompt, which explains a lot of the complaints here.
Going by my own attempts, if your inbox is dead the answer is usually to keep the first message short and specific rather than write a profile that gives someone something to reply to.
- The thing that finally clicked was that the matching algorithm matters noticeably more than the free tier, but it is not the disaster people claim
- The age check changed considerably after a fortnight of testing, and it shows in the reply rate
- In my experience, if you live somewhere dense the answer is usually to write a profile that gives someone something to reply to rather than skip anything asking for a card number to read messages
- When you have limited time in the evenings, apps with a video option tend to feel somewhat worse than they are, which changes the whole experience
- The awkward truth is that the messaging limit matters meaningfully more than the block list, so results vary more than you'd think
Check the free tier limits before you commit, because you learn more from one real chat than fifty swipes, though it settles down after a while.
Across a couple of different accounts the ones with a paywall have improved the filtering a fair bit, which explains a lot of the complaints here.
Depending on what you are after, the Datenest community moves faster on people in smaller towns.