It can be hard to know exactly how to start a conversation. Many daters say they hesitate to send the first message because they’re not sure what to say. Convo Starters is a new feature that gives daters personalized ideas for how to start a conversation, inspired by the Prompt answers and photos on someone’s profile. These tips are meant to inspire you, not write the message for you – you decide what to send and how to make it your own. Our testing suggested that using Convo Starters helped daters feel more confident sending a first message.
Example: If you like a photo of a potential match at a pasta restaurant, you might see tips like, “Ask about their favorite restaurant,” “Swap pasta recipes,” or “Share your go-to dish.”
How do Convo Starters Work?
Convo Starters may appear in two places on Hinge: the start of a new conversation and under someone’s profile content in Discover. Once you've matched with someone, but before either of you send a first message in Chat, three to six Convo Starters may appear near the message bar to inspire you to take that next step if you both have the feature enabled. After someone sends a first message, the Convo Starters will disappear from chat. In Discover, up to three Convo Starters may appear under select photos or prompts after you tap "Like." Likewise, other daters will see Convo Starters when they like a photo or prompt on your profile. Hinge research indicates that 72% of daters are more likely to consider a potential match when they receive a like that also includes a message.
In the regions where Convo Starters is available, Hinge sends the prompt responses, photos, and pronouns from a dater’s public profile to OpenAI to generate up to three relevant tips for initiating a conversation about that content. When another dater likes a photo or prompt response, the tips will appear for their consideration, but Convo Starters will not send or draft messages on their behalf. Convo Starters are meant to spark ideas that daters can take or leave as they see fit.
Convo Starters do not appear on all profile content. You may not see tips on:
- Selfies or group photos;
- Voice, Video, or Poll Prompts; or
- Prompts or photos related to sensitive topics or terms.
This is intentional. Some content encourages conversation, while other content may be excluded to maintain users’ safety and respect their privacy. Learn more about Hinge’s rules for uploading content in our Terms of Use and Community Guidelines.
Giving Feedback
AI isn’t perfect! Convo Starters are automatically generated to help spark ideas – they’re not reviewed beforehand or written by people at Hinge. If you see a tip that feels off or irrelevant, tap “Give Feedback” to let us know. You can choose which tip your feedback relates to and add details. Once submitted, you’ll see a confirmation message. Your feedback helps us improve Convo Starters for everyone. You can learn more about Hinge’s AI principles here.
User Privacy
Our goal is to make starting a conversation easier without compromising user privacy. Convo Starters in Chat and Discover use only the photos, prompt responses, and pronouns a user shares on their Hinge profile, which are therefore already viewable by other members.
To generate Convo Starters, Hinge transfers personal data to its “data processor,” OpenAI. OpenAI only processes the data according to Hinge’s instructions, cannot use the data to train its models, and deletes the data within 30 days of receipt.
Convo Starters do not analyze or otherwise process facial geometry, biometric data, or private messages. Hinge also takes appropriate measures to prevent the transmission of sensitive or otherwise inappropriate content (including special category data, as defined by applicable law) to OpenAI for the purpose of generating Convo Starters, and appropriately instructs the model not to infer or generate such information.
Hinge retains Convo Starters, consistently with other account data, for the life of a user’s account, and deletes the data in accordance with Section 9 of our Privacy Policy upon account closure. Users may access the Convo Starters generated on their content via Hinge’s in-app Download My Data tool.
See our Privacy Policy for more information on Hinge’s collection and use of personal data and how to contact us with additional questions.
Legal Basis
Hinge processes personal data to generate Convo Starters on the basis of its legitimate interest in improving its Service and creating new features, as described in greater detail in Section 4 of the Privacy Policy.
Want to Turn Off Convo Starters?
If you’d like to opt out of Convo Starters, you may do so via the settings in your app. as depicted below. If you opt out, Convo Starters will no longer be generated on your profile photos and prompt responses, and you will not see Convo Starters on other daters’ photos and prompt responses that you “like” or match with.