Can You Block Someone on Tinder Without Sharing Your Contacts?

Yes. Tinder has a manual option: in Settings, open Block Contacts, tap the plus icon at the top of the screen, enter the person's contact info and tap Done. You never have to give the app your whole address book to block one woman. If you already shared your contacts and regret it, Tinder says you can stop at any time by tapping the menu icon and selecting Disconnect Contact List.

1. Open Tinder and tap the profile icon.
2. Go to Settings and select Block Contacts.
3. Tap the plus icon at the top of the screen.
4. Enter the person's contact info.
5. Tap Done.

Repeat it for each person. It takes about as long as saving a new number in your phone, because that is more or less what you are doing. Use the most current details you have for her, the same ones you would text.

Plenty of men are uneasy handing a dating app every number in their phone. The address book holds your boss, your mother, your dentist, and people you have not spoken to in years. Giving all of that to an app so you can avoid one ex feels like a bad trade, and that is a fair instinct.

Typing a name in by hand keeps the trade small. The app gets the details of the person you want to avoid, and nothing about everyone else.

It also makes you deliberate. When you type each name yourself, you block the three people who matter and stop there. Import the whole list and it is easy to start scrolling and blocking half of it, which is a lot of effort spent on people who were never going to see you.

There is a quick test for whether someone belongs on the list. Ask yourself whether seeing her on the app would bother you for more than a minute. If it would, type her in. If it would not, leave her off.

Men often share their contacts in a hurry. They tap through a prompt and only think about it afterwards. That choice is not permanent. Tinder says you can stop sharing your device's contact list at any time by tapping the menu icon and selecting Disconnect Contact List.

Disconnecting does not wipe your blocks. Tinder notes that your current list of blocked contacts stays as it is until you unblock people yourself. So you can disconnect your address book and keep your ex blocked. The blocks you already set are safe. If you want to see that for yourself, open the Blocked tab after you disconnect, and the names will still be there.

A block through Block Contacts is narrow. Tinder says blocking contacts does not affect your existing matches or messages, and the person you block is not notified.

In practice that means two things. If the woman you want gone is already one of your matches, blocking her contact details will not remove the match or the chat. Open the conversation and unmatch her instead. And if you were worried the block would announce itself, it will not. Nobody gets an alert.

It does not reveal anything about her either. Tinder notes that blocking someone does not mean they have a Tinder account. You might block a coworker who has never opened a dating app in her life, and nothing about that is visible to anyone.

Keep the list short and specific.

• An ex you are not over yet. Seeing her face while you swipe drags you straight back into it. Every barrier between you and her makes the breakup easier to get through, and this one takes a minute.
• People from work, especially anyone you manage or report to.
• Anyone who made you uncomfortable and whom you would rather not see, or be seen by.

Be honest with yourself about the ex. If you are blocking her because seeing her stings, good, that is what the tool is for. If you are blocking her so she wonders why she never sees you, she is still running your evening, and she will never know about the block anyway.

Everyone else can see you on the app, and that is fine. You are on a dating app because you want to date. There is nothing embarrassing about a coworker's friend knowing that, and trying to hide from everyone only makes the app feel like something to be ashamed of.

You do not need to share your contacts to block someone. Add them by hand from Block Contacts with the plus icon, disconnect your contact list whenever you like, and know that your blocks survive the disconnect. Block the few people who matter, then get back to the conversations you actually want to have.