Dating apps came onto the scene in the early 2000s, with ProxiDating1 launching in 2003. The service used Bluetooth to alert users when a compatible match was within 50 feet.
Not long after came Badoo, Skout, Grindr, Tinder, and Bumble as well as app versions of existing dating sites like Match, eharmony, Zoosk, and OkCupid.
Today, it seems as if a new app comes out every day, and all kinds of new features for matching and chatting are launched. So we wanted to get into the minds of dating app users and take you through some of the most common things they do.
1. Men Swipe Three Times as Much as Women
According to Time, men are three times as likely to swipe on Tinder as women.2 Men swipe 46% of the time, and women swipe right on just 14% of profiles.
Some reasons men are more active than women on dating apps could be that women tend to get a lot more messages than men, so men often have to do more of the initiating.
2. Daters Are Loud Looking
Before you can find what you want, you need to know (and pursue) whatever that is. In their 2024 Year in Swipe survey, Tinder found that singles are “loud looking” for their relationship dreams; They said that almost 20% of surveyed singles shared that they are planning to manifest love by making vision boards of their relationship goals.3
3. Tinder Is the Second-Most-Popular Dating App Globally
Founded in 2012, Tinder revolutionized the mobile dating space by creating the swiping matching system. Today, about 50 million people use the app every month, and it’s available in over 45 languages.4
Tinder boasts being downloaded over 630 million times and creating 97 billion matches.
It’s really no surprise that Tinder is the most popular dating app in the United States, and the second-most-popular in the world after Badoo.5
4. Monday Is the Most Active Day of the Week
There is a best time to be on the apps, and it’s Monday evening.6 After getting back into the swing of the workweek, singles are remembering how important it is to have a date to look forward to later in the week.
Additionally, the first Sunday of January — Dating Sunday — is another top day for daters looking to find love in the new year. Dating more is certainly a worthwhile resolution.
5. Sunday Is the Most Active Day for Grindr Users
While Thursdays see a lot of dating app engagement overall, the most active day for users appears to be different for Grindr members in the US and the UK, who both prefer Sunday, specifically around 11:55 p.m.7 That might be the best time for gay, bisexual, and curious singles to log in.
6. Nearly Two-Thirds of Single Women Are Getting Their Priorities Straight
Gone are the days of going along with an unfulfilling fling; women are speaking up for (and to) themselves. Bumble found that 64% of single women make an effort to be honest with themselves and stop compromising.
You can’t be honest with others unless you’re honest with yourself, and that’s exactly what these women are trying to do.
7. About 1 in 5 Singles Ask Their Friends for Help
Your grandparents had to ask for their parents’ permission to start dating; you run your dates by your friends. Tinder found that nearly 20% of surveyed singles had their friends vet their potential partners over social media.
Our communities are important, and singles want to make sure that anyone coming to the Friday night hangouts gets the friend group’s stamp of approval.
8. Almost Half of Singles Want Someone Quirky
This isn’t high school anymore; being a little bit weird is now a little bit hot. Bumble found that almost half (46%) of singles see unique or quirky interests as an added form of attractiveness, not a detriment.
Ask anyone who’s been actively dating: Dates can get repetitive. It starts to feel like you’ve met the same person over and over again. Learning about someone’s roller-derby team or their passion for quilting can be quite refreshing.
9. Most Uninstalls Happen in the First Month
Interestingly enough, Newsweek found that a staggering 65% of dating apps get deleted within the first month they were downloaded.8 And of that 65%, 90% deleted the app within the first week.
There are a myriad of reasons singles may delete the apps quickly. While some likely find a partner to date IRL shortly after joining, many find themselves frustrated with the online dating experience and call it quits shortly after starting.
10. Singles Under 30 Spend 10 Hours a Week on Dating Apps
According to a survey conducted by dating app Badoo, singles who are 30 or younger use dating apps for about 10 hours each week.9 That’s before we even consider the amount of time that the in-person component of dating takes.
Actively dating in the age of the internet is a part-time — and maybe a full-time — job for many singles.
11. Men Spend an Extra 10 Minutes Each Day Swiping
All singles clearly spend a lot of time looking at dating profiles, but men, in particular, seem to be taking their time with it. The breakdown is that guys spend an average of 89 minutes a day on dating apps, while women spend an average of 79 minutes a day on dating apps.
Again, it probably goes back to the fact that women usually get more interaction on dating apps without having to try, while men are usually the ones making the moves (more on that later).
12. About 41% of Men & 39% of Women Want to Meet ASAP
Bustle (an online publisher) and Happn (a dating app) got together to learn more about the habits of dating app users as well and discovered some really interesting things.
One statistic showed that about 4 out of 10 men and women want to set up the first date rather quickly after that first message on a dating app.10 They don’t want to talk for weeks on end — they want to get on the date to see if the chemistry is there in person.
13. Over 70% of App Users Are Looking for a Relationship
In Bumble’s 2025 Dating Trends Study, they found that an overwhelming 72% of singles are using a dating app to find a long-term commitment.11 Sometimes there’s a misconception that dating apps are only for hooking up, and while that is happening, it’s not as prevalent as some people may think.12
14. Nearly 60% of Women Talk to More Than One Person
Mobile dating is all about giving people options, so it’s no surprise that a lot of daters communicate with more than one match at a time.
Specifically, 41% of men and 58% of women surveyed by Happn said they talk to two to three people at once, while 10% of men and 14% of women said they talk to four to five people at once.13
Alternatively, 24% of men and 13% of women said they only talk to one person at a time.
15. Men Are Twice As Likely to Respond to Full-Length Body Photos
Singles have some intriguing photo preferences, too. Bustle and Happn report that 51% of men (vs. 24% of women) are more likely to respond to a profile picture if it’s a full-length body shot.
Many psychologists, biologists, and other experts have said men tend to be more visual, and this just may be another stat that proves that fact.14
16. Women Are 25% More Likely to Respond to Headshots
So, what types of photos attract women the most? Perhaps unsurprisingly, not the same as men. Approximately 60% of women said they are more likely to respond to a profile picture that’s a face shot, in the words of Bustle and Happn. That’s compared to 35% of men who respond to the same type of photo.
Some research has found that women are less visual than men.15 More scientifically, their amygdalas show lower levels of activity than men’s amygdalas when viewing sexually visual stimuli.
17. The First Move: 70% of Women Wait for Men to Message
It may be the 21st century, but a lot of old-school dating habits still ring true, even in terms of mobile dating. According to the Bustle and Happn survey, 7 out of 10 women won’t send the first message on a dating app — they want men to do it.
In addition, 75% of men are more likely to send the first message compared with 26% of women, and the top opening line is “Hey, how’s it going?”
On the flip side, dating app Bumble pushes women (and men) out of their comfort zones by requiring women to send the first message. It may feel scary to initiate, but it can be empowering to go after what you want.
18. About 85% of Men & 78% of Women Still Meet People IRL
We round out our list with the fact that, even when using a dating app, most men and women don’t limit themselves to the platform — they still try to meet people in real life as well.
Favorite ways include meeting people at parties, bars, while volunteering or attending a class, and activities like that.16 Why not try to increase your odds, you know?
There You Have It — The Good, the Bad & the Weird Habits
Online dating is constantly changing as new generations come into their swiping years. Some habits are strategic, as with loud looking, and others are reflective of social norms. It seems no matter which wave of feminism we enter, men are continually expected to make the first move.
These statistics show us where online dating has been, where it is now, and where it could be heading. Now you know!
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_online_dating ↩︎
- https://time.com/3547890/tinder-men-women-swipe-right/ ↩︎
- https://www.tinderpressroom.com/2024-12-03-TINDERS-YEAR-IN-SWIPE-TM-2024 ↩︎
- https://www.tinderpressroom.com/about ↩︎
- https://www.businessofapps.com/data/dating-app-market/ ↩︎
- https://www.theknot.com/content/dating-sunday#:~:text=Cue%20Dating%20Monday,8%20p.m.%2C%22%20says%20Boodram. ↩︎
- https://www.elitedaily.com/dating/best-times-swipe-dating-apps/1849455 ↩︎
- https://www.newsweek.com/gen-z-women-delete-dating-apps-within-month-meet-person-1870329 ↩︎
- https://galoremag.com/millennials-spend-10-hours-week-dating-apps/ ↩︎
- https://www.bustle.com/articles/178033-6-charts-that-show-what-dating-app-behavior-is-really-like-according-to-bustle-happns ↩︎
- https://bumbcdn.com/i/big/bumble/docs/reports/bumble_global_report_dating_trends_2025.pdf ↩︎
- https://www.cnn.com/2015/08/18/opinions/robbins-tinder-online-dating/index.html ↩︎
- https://www.bustle.com/articles/178785-women-still-arent-making-the-first-move-online-but-heres-why-we-should ↩︎
- https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/evolution-of-the-self/201205/the-triggers-of-sexual-desire-men-vs-women ↩︎
- https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2004/03/040316072953.htm ↩︎
- https://www.bustle.com/wellness/how-to-meet-someone-to-date-in-person ↩︎
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