How To Escape the Dreaded ‘Phone Zone’ on Dating Apps

With advice from experts at Hinge

Fleurine Tideman
Write Like a Girl
Published in
6 min readMay 24, 2023

--

Photo by Priscilla Du Preez on Unsplash

Okay, let’s set the scene.

You’ve got your profile uploaded, complete with some gorgeous photos and a description that captures you well. You’ve been swiping away. You get the notification. Someone has matched with you, or responded to your prompt, or whatever the case is for the dating app you’re on.

After that initial adrenaline rush — don’t deny it, we all get that swiping high! — you settle into a conversation with them.

Things are going well. Maybe you talk about your jobs. Maybe you ask about the adorable dog in their photo. Maybe you bond over a TV show you both like. When in doubt, ask if they’ve watched Friends.

The conversation flows, and it just keeps going. Hours turn into days, and maybe even weeks.

But at no point is there the suggestion to meet up. You’re both enjoying chatting, but time is passing, and there is no move to take this off the screen and into real life.

You’re in the ‘Phone Zone’.

I spoke to Hinge to find out what this is, and what to do about it.

What is the ‘Phone Zone’?

Hinge coined this term to describe the extended period of time spent chatting to someone on a dating app. According to their research, over 51% of daters have found themselves in this position over the last three months.

How quickly can you slip into the ‘Phone Zone’?

It depends on how quickly you’re ready to meet someone IRL. 62% of Hinge daters feel ready to schedule a date after three days, but only 34% of users actually do this. The rest are stuck in the ‘Phone Zone’ despite feeling ready to take things offline.

What’s so wrong with the ‘Phone Zone’?

For some, it can work out. We always hear those old wives’ tales of people who met on a dating app but couldn’t meet up for months, and then when they finally did, it was magical.

But what we don’t hear about are the users who enter this chatting period and never leave it, slowly allowing the conversation to fade to nothing.

--

--

Fleurine Tideman
Write Like a Girl

Freelance copywriter. SEO marketer. Aspiring novelist. Top Writer in Mental Health. Writing the articles I once needed. My newsletter: https://bit.ly/3FZCJJx