About

Hinge Voice Prompts, also known as Hinge Voice Memos, is a feature on the online dating app Hinge in which users can record a voice message based on a given prompt. The straightforwardness of the feature led to many audio messages that sounded creepy, cringy or charming. Many Hinge users started screen-recording voice memos and sharing them on TikTok in late 2021.

Origin

On October 27th, 2021, Hinge^[1] unveiled its new "voice prompts" feature which, to Hinge, made its app unique. It gave its users a new way to identify their ideal match. This would set it apart from competitors like Tinder, Bumble and Grindr.

Spread

Hinge users started using the function going into November 2021, experimenting with their answers in hopes of finding an ideal match. However, as more and more users added voice prompts to their profiles, some were effective while others came off as cringy.

On November 1st, 2021, TikToker^[2] based_fob posted a video using the green screen effect. Behind him was a Hinge audio prompt from a mixed woman relaying how much she likes white guys. Based_fob found it cringeworthy and funny. Over the course of five months, the video received roughly 608,800 plays and 106,700 likes (shown below, left). On November 7th, 2021, TikToker^[3] melissamerk posted a video, wherein, she stated, "I was going to delete hinge but then they came out with the audio feature…" Her video received roughly 8.4 million plays and 1.4 million likes in five months (shown below, right).

Predominantly inspired by melissamerk's TikTok, users on the platform started sharing Hinge audios en masse going into December 2021. On December 1st, 2021, YouTubers Cody Ko and Noel Miller uploaded a clip from their TMG Podcast, wherein, they reacted to Hinge audio messages posted by TikTokers. The video received roughly 215,800 views in four months (shown below).

TikTokers continued to share their Hinge audios going into early 2022. The trend spread to other social media platforms too. For instance, on April 26th, 2022, Twitter ^[4] user sosasluv tweeted a video that received roughly 1.4 million views and 48,300 likes in one day (shown below).

Downloaded Hinge today to see what’s going on in the Toronto dating scene & deleted it immediately after this pic.twitter.com/n5nknDVDWi

— ♡ (@sosasluv) April 26, 2022

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References