Dating apps are a notoriously hostile space towards transgender users. If they list their transness in their profiles, they’re outing themselves to the world. If they don’t, matches could accuse them of catfishing. Picking the right time to tell matches can feel impossible.
With “Match Note,” Hinge wants to help these daters out.
The feature, which launched this morning, lets users send a must-read note to their match before starting a conversation. The use cases extend far beyond trans users: The tool can also benefit neurodivergent daters, daters with children, and more. Listing these sensitive identity traits on a public profile can feel daunting; now, Hinge is offering a chance for users to keep some of their privacy.
“When you’re dating, it can be vulnerable to open up to others,” Hinge CMO Jackie Jantos writes in an email to Fast Company. “Match Note gives all daters an opportunity to share what they feel is important—privately and directly—with people they’ve matched with.”
Hinge’s ploy to help minority daters
It’s a hard time to be trans in the United States. President Donald Trump has rolled back trans civil protections and encoded anti-trans language into his executive orders. His actions have also fed into an increasingly anti-trans corporate culture, as American companies continue to cow to Trump by cutting DEI initiatives. Even more companies, it seems, are afraid to say the word “trans” nowadays.
That’s why it’s meaningful when Hinge announces new features specifically trying to help their trans customers. Match Note gives them more options, choosing exactly when and how they want to disclose their gender identity to other matches. It’s popular, too: Of 2,000 daters who tested Match Note, 83% of trans and non-binary respondents thought the feature improved their ability to show up as their authentic self on Hinge, per Jantos.
“In the LGBTQIA+ community, trans, nonbinary, and queer+ folks used Match Note during testing to share more about their gender identity upon matching — like highlighting from their profile that they’re trans or reminding matches about their pronouns,” Jantos writes. “Other members of the community, such as gay men, are using this surface to share more about their preferred sexual positions because it feels important to align on from the beginning.”
The tool could be useful for neurodivergent daters, too. Hinge users may not want the swiping world to know that they’re on the spectrum, for example. But that could affect their messaging patterns; with Match Note, that user could disclose their neurodivergence after matching. Or, imagine the single parent who needs their partner to love children, but doesn’t want to breach the child’s privacy by listing them on a public profile. With Match Note, they could save that information for just those they match with.
How much do we share on dating apps?
Even for traits that aren’t as personally sensitive, disclosures are becoming increasingly difficult. Think of the sober dater. While they may not care whether the world knows about their sobriety, it’s difficult to cram that into Hinge’s witty prompt boxes. (Generally, users don’t look close enough to see a “No” next to Hinge’s glass icon.) Those disclosures also break the feeling of nonchalance that many users seek to create. What if they come off as overly earnest? Now, they can list their sobriety in a Match Note.
“Knowing when to share or repeat or go into detail about certain information can be tricky,” Jantos writes. “We hope this optional moment can save daters from any unnecessary confusion or heartache down the line and help you get on dates with the people you’re excited about.”
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