Here's What You Should (And Shouldn't) Say In Your First Online Dating Message

Want to make sure you get a reply? Here’s what you should be saying in your first online dating message

Are you sick of using the standard ‘hey,’ or ‘hi,’ opening lines on Tinder and various other dating apps? Or maybe you’re not sure if that baby angel emoji followed by a pizza slice emoji is really getting across the message you’re trying to convey. Either way, there now exists a (sort of) scientific list of the best phrases to use in your first online dating message in order to get that all-important reply.

The team at dating app Hinge have just completed a study to find out the best and worst messages to send to your matches. They came up with a list of over 100 super-breezy one liners for their users to try out, and then recorded which ones received the most responses. FYI - the number one best opening line increased people's chances of getting a reply by a mighty 31%.

Here are the five best opening lines:

1. Two truths and a lie; Ready. Set. Go!

2. Sunday priorities: exercise, sleep, or aggressive mimosas?

3. Better discovery: Netflix or avocados?

4. Katy Perry or Taylor Swift?

5. Breakfast preference: pancakes, waffles, or sleeping til lunch?

...And here are the five worst opening lines:

1. Would you rather have weekly hiccups or never sneeze to completion ever again?

2. What’s the most awkward movie you’ve watched with your parents?

3. Worst piece of advice you ever received?

4. Jorts… or cargo jorts? [That's jean shorts, btw]

5. Settle this once and for all: are they called fireflies or lightning bugs?

As well as this, they also discovered that if a woman didn’t message a man within six hours of matching, he was 25% less likely to reply. On the other hand, this didn't bother women nearly as much - the likelihood of receiving a reply only dropped by 5% if a man waited more than 6 hours to message a woman.

And where do emojis factor into all of this? We're not quite sure, but what we DO know is that a love of T-Swift is way more likely to get you a reply than a boring old 'hey.' Happy Tindering.