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TL;DR
Convo Starters is Hinge’s AI feature that suggests up to three conversation ideas under a photo or prompt after you tap Like. It gives you a topic, not a message, and you still have to write the thing yourself. Hinge’s own data says likes with a comment lead to dates roughly twice as often as likes without one, so the feature is solving a real problem. Below is how it works and 40 openers you can use when the suggestions are too bland.
Everybody knows the moment. You have liked someone, the comment box is open, and your brain produces nothing. So you send it blank, or you type “hey”, and the whole thing is dead before it started.
Hinge built Convo Starters for that exact pause. It reads the profile you are looking at and hands you three ideas based on what is actually there.
The interesting part is not the feature itself. It is the numbers Hinge published alongside it, which quietly explain why so many likes go nowhere.
What are Convo Starters on Hinge?
Convo Starters gives you personalised ideas for how to open a conversation, drawn from the prompt answers and photos on someone’s profile.
How it works in practice:
- You tap Like on a specific photo or prompt in Discover
- Up to three Convo Starters may appear underneath it
- They are ideas rather than messages. Hinge is explicit that they are meant to inspire you, not write the message for you
- You decide what to send and how to word it
Hinge’s own example: if you like a photo of someone at a pasta restaurant, you might see suggestions along the lines of asking about their favourite restaurant, swapping recipes, or sharing your go-to dish. Topics, not sentences.
The feature was built with input from Hinge’s behavioural scientists, who defined what tends to make an opener work. The pattern they landed on is unsurprising and worth remembering: questions that invite dialogue, and comments that show genuine curiosity.
The numbers behind it
Three figures Hinge has published, and they are the most useful part of this whole feature.
72% of daters are more likely to consider someone when the like comes with a message. Nearly three quarters. That is not a marginal advantage.
People who comment on their likes are twice as likely to arrange a date. Not twice as likely to match. Twice as likely to end up on an actual date.
35% of users in testing felt more confident reaching out when they saw suggestions, and overall people sent more comments with their likes.
Read those first two again, because they settle an argument people have constantly. Sending a bare like is not a neutral choice. It roughly halves your odds of getting a date out of that profile.
Should you use Convo Starters?
Use them as a prompt for your own thinking, not as a script.
What they are good for: breaking the blank-page freeze. If the reason you send bare likes is that you cannot think of anything, a suggested topic solves that in two seconds. That is a genuine win, and the confidence figure suggests it works.
Where they fall down: they are generated from the same profile everyone else is looking at, using the same system. If three people like the same pasta photo and all take the obvious suggestion, that person receives three near-identical messages about pasta.
The suggestion tells you where to aim. It does not tell you what to say, and the wording is where the difference lives.
There is also a reasonable discomfort with AI in dating, particularly among younger daters. Worth being straight about it: taking a topic suggestion and writing your own sentence is not outsourcing anything. Pasting a generated line and pretending it is you is a different matter, and it tends to come apart in person anyway.
How to use the suggestion and still sound like yourself
Three moves, and they take about ten seconds.
Take the topic, bin the phrasing. If the suggestion is “ask about their favourite restaurant”, do not ask about their favourite restaurant. Say something about restaurants that only you would say.
Add a position. A question is fine. A question with an opinion attached is better, because it gives them something to agree or argue with.
Leave something unfinished. The best openers have a hole in them that the other person naturally fills.
So “ask about their favourite restaurant” becomes “I have a rule that any restaurant with laminated menus is a good restaurant. Tell me I am wrong.”
Same topic. Completely different message.
40 openers that beat the default suggestion
Group these by what the profile gives you. Swap my specifics for whatever is actually there.
When the suggestion is about food
- I have a firm rule about laminated menus and I am prepared to defend it.
- Right, best thing you have eaten in the last month. This is important research.
- That looks excellent and I need to know where it is.
- I judge people entirely on their opinion of coriander. No pressure.
- Going to guess you are the one who picks the restaurant. Am I close?
When the suggestion is about travel
- Where is this? I have been staring at it trying to work it out for longer than I would like to admit.
- Best trip you have been on that was not the most expensive one?
- I have been to twelve countries and my favourite meal was a bacon sandwich in Wales. Explain how that happened.
- This looks like a very specific type of holiday and I have questions about all of it.
- Give me one place I should go that nobody recommends.
When the suggestion is about a hobby or interest
- Also spent an embarrassing amount of last year doing this. We should compare notes.
- How did you get into this? There is always a story.
- I have tried this twice and been catastrophically bad both times. Any advice?
- You have listed three things I do every weekend, which I am choosing to read as promising.
- Settle something for me: is this actually enjoyable or do you just tell people it is?
When the suggestion is about a pet
- The dog is clearly running this profile and I respect that.
- Name, breed, and one crime they have committed. Go.
- I need to know whether this dog is as well behaved as it looks, because I doubt it.
- Genuinely liked this photo for the dog. Sorry.
When the suggestion is about a prompt answer
- This is the first answer to that prompt today that was not about travelling. Thank you.
- Bold claim. I am going to need supporting evidence.
- Agreed on everything except the last bit, which I will be taking up with you.
- You cannot write half a story like that and stop. Finish it.
- Genuinely made me laugh, which is not a low bar despite what my friends say.
- Most specific answer I have read on here and I mean that well.
When you want to disagree, which works better than people expect
- Good profile, ruined by one opinion, which I assume was a typo.
- We are going to fall out about this and I am fine with it.
- Wrong, but confidently wrong, which I respect.
- You seem lovely and your take on this is a serious problem for us both.
- Strong opinion, and unfortunately mine is stronger.
When the profile is thin and the suggestions are useless
- Your profile has given me almost nothing to work with, so I will ask directly: what are you actually into?
- Deliberately mysterious profile. Respect. What is the real story?
- Going to guess from these photos that you are a [guess]. Correct me.
- Working with limited material here, so let us start from scratch. How is your week?
- One prompt and three photos. Bold. What am I missing?
When you just want to be direct
- Read the whole profile, liked all of it, could not pick one bit. So, hello.
- Not going to be clever about this. You seem great, fancy a drink?
- This is me deciding not to scroll past and regret it later.
- Nothing witty to add. Genuinely just liked your profile and wanted to say so.
- Skipping the clever opener because I have nine of them and they are all terrible.
What never works, suggestion or not
- “Hey”, which wastes the entire mechanism
- Anything purely about appearance, which reads as automated when it arrives with a like
- Three paragraphs before you have matched
- Questions with no real answer, like “how are you” with no context
- Anything you could paste onto any profile without changing a word
That last one is the test. If the message survives being pasted onto a stranger’s profile, it is not an opener.
Worth reading alongside this:
- Best first message on Hinge, with examples that actually get replies
- How to keep a conversation going over text
- How to get more matches on Hinge
- What to say when a girl texts you hey
The real takeaway from this feature
Hinge built an AI tool because too many people were sending nothing, and its own research says sending nothing halves your chances of a date from that profile.
That is the fact worth carrying away, regardless of whether you ever use a single suggestion. The feature is optional. Commenting is the bit that matters.
If the suggestions help you get past the blank box, use them. If they feel generic, use them as a pointer and write your own line. Either way, the goal is the same: never send a bare like again.
Wrapping Up
Convo Starters gives you up to three topic ideas after you like a photo or prompt, generated from that person’s profile, with the actual writing left to you.
Take the topic, throw away the phrasing, add an opinion, and leave something for them to answer. Ten seconds of work, and Hinge’s own numbers say it roughly doubles your odds of getting a date out of that like.
Quick Summary
- Convo Starters shows up to three AI-generated conversation ideas after you tap Like
- They are topics rather than written messages, and you compose the message yourself
- Hinge says 72% of daters are more likely to consider someone whose like includes a message
- People who comment on likes are around twice as likely to arrange a date
- Take the suggested topic but write your own wording, since everyone sees similar suggestions
- Add an opinion and leave something unanswered, so the reply writes itself
What are Convo Starters on Hinge?
They are AI-generated conversation ideas that can appear under a photo or prompt after you tap Like. Up to three show at a time, based on that person’s profile, and they suggest a topic rather than writing the message for you.
Does Hinge write the message for you?
No. Hinge is explicit that Convo Starters are meant to inspire you rather than write the message. You choose what to send and how to word it, which is why two people using the same suggestion can send completely different openers.
Do comments on likes actually make a difference on Hinge?
Yes, and the difference is large. Hinge’s research indicates 72% of daters are more likely to consider someone when the like comes with a message, and people who comment are roughly twice as likely to arrange a date.
Can other people tell you used a Convo Starter?
Not unless you paste the suggestion word for word without changing it. Since the ideas are topics rather than sentences, anything you actually write is yours. The risk is sending something obviously generic that several other people also sent.
Why do I not see Convo Starters on every profile?
They appear under select photos and text prompts, so not every part of every profile will generate them. A thin profile with little written content gives the system less to work with, which is also when you need your own opener most.
Is using AI to start conversations on dating apps cheating?
Taking a topic suggestion and writing your own line is no different from a friend telling you what to ask about. Pasting a generated message wholesale is a different matter, mainly because it sets up a version of you that you then have to keep up in person.
What is the best opener on Hinge?
One that responds to something specific in their profile, includes an opinion or a question, and leaves something for them to answer. Two lines is plenty. The worst opener is no opener, since a bare like gives the other person nothing to reply to.
