I’m 28, and for the entirety of my adult life, ever since I was 18, I’ve used dating apps. Throughout my experience, apps have been the only way I’ve been able to get dates, hookups, and relationships with women. In my entire life, I have never once gone on a date with or hooked up with any women I’ve first met in real life.

At this point in my life, I’ve realized if I haven’t experienced meeting a woman initially in real life and eventually dating her, it probably won’t happen unless by some twist of fate. The natural opportunities to meet women, much less dateable women, do not seem to exist in my day to day life, and for various reasons I’ve decided I don’t want to learn cold approach or any similar method.

Dating apps have been the only way I’ve been able to have a dating life at all, but over the years they’ve decreased in effectiveness, as is common knowledge. Therefore, if I want to continue to rely on dating apps, I must find ways to optimize my profile as much as possible. Furthermore I must learn the best ways to conduct myself on there so that matches will lead to dates. Apps used to work better for me in previous years, but now the returns from them have diminished. I must adapt my approach to them if I’m always going to use them as my primary method.

Thus, I ask for the help of this sub. What are ways that you’ve optimized your profile to get more matches? What are your usual openers? How do you usually progress from the opener, to the buildup, to actually getting a date from it? For those who have gotten many dates from apps, what strategies have you found work the best? I’m eager to hear everyone’s best strategies and what experience has taught. What are some things I can do to optimize how apps perform for me in the present day?