Ok, no doubt that you have all heard about this dating/hookup app. From my experience, it's really one of the few apps that has a good girl to guy ratio. Here are my tips:

  1. As superficial as guys can be, so are girls. Tinder is an inherently superficial app. Make sure your pictures are good. First pic should show your face CLEARLY. That does not mean stand in front of the mirror and take a selfie. That means dig up a photo that is good quality while also flattering. If you have a nice body, show it off in the second or third pic. But once again, NO MIRROR SELFIES. Nothing screams loser with no social skills more than someone that only has pictures taken in their bathroom. Ideally this would be something at the beach or where you're doing some activity that it's natural to not have a shirt on. Now for the rest of your pictures, just make sure they are as interesting as possible. Show off your interests. If you have a picture of you and your dog, for instance, that would do nicely. A good picture can make the difference here. I received an increased positive response after switching to a main picture that was more recent and showed my face more clearly.

  2. Tagline: keep it simple. Throw your height in there if you're over 6 feet tall, maybe where you're from and what institution of higher learning you attend/attended at some point. Next, put in something creative, like "pro parallel parker" or some type of funny pickup line that shows off your sense of humor. Do not over do it and try not to sound too self obsessed.

  3. Now, the most important part: swiping. I always swipe right. It's faster, and you get a better idea of the girls that find you attractive (not just the girls where attraction is mutual). If you live in a well populated area, it's honestly just a waste of time to look through each person's bio and all of their pics. I visited a buddy in NYC one time and after setting the radius to 1 mile, spent probably the better part of 90 minutes swiping right until I got to the end of the matches in the area. Do the filtering after you have matched.

  4. Now you have matches. As a guy, you are probably going to have to initiate the messaging. Comment on one of her pictures, shared interests, call her stunning, but please...for the love of god don't just say hi/hello. Any girl above a 6 is going to have 20 other guys messaging them at the same time and hi/hello will get you no where. Just like in real life, you're initial conversation needs to be memorable. I'll let your imaginations run wild with this part.

  5. Get the number as soon as you have even the smallest amount of rapport built up. The tinder UI and server responsiveness often sucks, so this is often a good excuse to ask for the number. This is a good way to weed out the girls that are just using the app as an ego boost and just don't have many plans on meeting up with random Tinder matches in real life. Immediately after getting the number, text her right away to avoid the cringingly awkward "who is this game" and commence initiation of dates/plans.

Look elsewhere on this sub reddit for information about how to proceed once you meet up in person. Don't be afraid to go for the f-close, but don't force it either. Since this is an online dating app, meeting in public is probably the best play. If you're able to escalate to a decent amount, change venues and then try to get her back at your place if that's your ultimate goal. I think there is still a little bit of a social stigma when it comes to meeting people online, especially significant others, but don't let that hold you back. I've met plenty of sexy and interesting girls on Tinder and just because you didn't meet them in a coffee shop doesn't mean they aren't datable material.

Feel free to add any suggestions/tips. I studied computer and cognitive science in college, so I'm really actually very intrigued with the topic of online dating in general and how computers help us initiate physical connections between people.