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Your bio is killing your matches: the opener & prompt mistakes nobody tells you

The Match Lab · London · 7 min read

Great photos get the swipe. Then your words decide whether it turns into a conversation — or a dead match. After fixing hundreds of profiles, we see the same bio, prompt and opener mistakes again and again. None of them are about how you look. All of them are easy to fix.

01. Writing a bio that could be anyone's

"Love to travel, into food, work hard play hard, looking for someone to laugh with." This describes roughly every human alive. A bio's only job is to sound like you specifically — and to give someone an obvious thing to message you about.

Before"Love travelling, good food and a laugh."
After"On a mission to find the best negroni in [your city]. Currently 0 for 12. Recommendations strongly encouraged."

02. The recycled clichés

Some lines are so overused they've become invisible — or a punchline. If you've seen it on fifty other profiles, delete it:

It's not that these are evil — it's that they do zero work. They tell no story and start no conversation.

03. The list of demands (and the negativity trap)

"No drama. No liars. Don't waste my time. If you're just going to ghost, don't bother." Even if it's all fair, it reads as bitter, not confident — and it makes you sound like hard work before you've even met. Your profile is a first impression, not a complaints form.

Before"No drama, no games, no time-wasters."
After"Easy-going, a bit nerdy about [thing], always up for a spontaneous plan."

04. Wasting your prompts (Hinge especially)

Prompts are free real estate and most people fill them with one-word throwaways. "Two truths and a lie: I'm fun, I'm cool, I'm boring." A good prompt does one of two things: reveals something specific, or hands the other person an easy way in.

Before"My simple pleasures: food, sleep, Netflix."
After"The way to win me over: have a strong, hill-to-die-on opinion about the correct way to make a roast potato."

05. No hook — nothing to reply to

The single biggest reason matches go nowhere: there's nothing to grab onto. The best profiles plant a clear conversation starter — a question, a mini-debate, a "change my mind." You're not writing a CV; you're opening a door.

Before"Just ask :)"
After"Controversial: pineapple belongs on pizza. Come fight me about it (or anything else)."

06. The opening message that ignores their profile

"Hey." "Hi how are you." "😍". Low-effort openers get low-effort results. The fix is almost embarrassingly simple: react to one specific thing on their profile. It shows you actually looked.

Before"Hey, how's your weekend going?"
After"Okay, your bookshelf photo is a power move — best and worst thing you've read this year?"

The one rule underneath all of this

Be specific, be warm, and always leave a door open. Specificity makes you memorable, warmth makes you approachable, and an open door gives people a reason to reply. Get those three right and an average-looking profile will outperform a gorgeous one with a blank, bitter, or cliché bio.

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