Can You Filter by Height on Dating Apps?

On some apps, yes. Hinge lets subscribers filter by height. OkCupid has a height preference, but it is a soft one. Tinder's discovery settings list age, distance and orientation, and Bumble's help page does not name a height filter. On Hinge, nobody else can see the preferences a woman sets, so you will not know whether a filter cut you from her list. What you can control is how you handle the matches you do get.

On Hinge, the free version filters on gender, distance, age range, ethnicity, relationship type and religion. Subscribers get more, and height is one of those extra preferences.

Hinge says dating preferences are private. Other users cannot see what you set. A preference can also be marked flexible, which means profiles outside it still show up. That is worth knowing, because a woman who sets a height minimum may still see a man who falls under it, if she marked the setting flexible.

OkCupid has a height preference under its looks preferences, next to body type. Its help page says it has no hard filters. It shows you people who meet all of your preferences first, and when nobody matches perfectly it shows people slightly outside them.

So a woman's height preference on OkCupid shapes the order in which she sees men. It does not wall them off completely.

Tinder lets a person add height to his page, but its help page lists sexual orientation, age and distance as the discovery settings. It also has a dealbreaker toggle under age and distance that lets in people slightly outside the range.

There is a disagreement worth naming. a dating coach has said in a video that Tinder introduced a feature letting paying members choose the height of their matches. Tinder's own settings page does not list one. Treat a Tinder height filter as unconfirmed, and look at your own settings to see what your version offers.

Bumble lets people add height under the more-about-you section of a page. Its Premium advanced filters are limited by one rule on its help page: you can use a filter only if you have added that detail to your own page. Its basic filters name age, distance, verified profiles, languages and interests.

Bumble also warns that stacking filters leaves you with fewer people. That applies to every app on this list.

The setting is invisible, so the useful question is what to do about a rule you cannot see.

Put the true height in the field if the app has one. A blank invites a guess, and the guess is usually lower than the truth. A lie is worse, because she can check it in the first ten seconds of the date.

Then spend your effort where a filter cannot reach. You cannot talk your way past a setting, and a woman who set a strict minimum was never going to read your bio. Her setting does not matter to the women who did not set one, and they are the ones you are writing to.

coach adds one more option. On a site with real search and messaging, such as Match, you can reach a woman an algorithm might have screened out for age or height, because the contact is your own choice. He says messaging there often costs money and is usually worth it.

My own line on height is that it matters less than most men fear. He is five foot seven, and he says the bias in your own head is probably bigger than the one in the world.

If you are tempted to set one for the women you see, think about what it costs. Every filter shrinks your pool, and Bumble says so directly. A tight height range can remove women you would have enjoyed.

On Hinge you can mark the preference flexible, so women just outside it still appear. That keeps your pool wider while still ordering the list the way you prefer. On OkCupid the preference is soft anyway.

My advice on apps in general is to be selective about who you like, because the app watches how you behave. That is a different thing from screening on a number. Choose by whether you are attracted to her and curious about her. Height is a poor stand-in for either.

1. Fill the height field with the real number, once.
2. Lead with a clear shot of your face and add a full-length one in clothes that fit.
3. Write two plain lines she can answer.
4. Reply fast to the matches you do get, and suggest a day and a place within a few messages.
5. Leave your own filters loose enough that the pool stays large.

Filters decide who sees you. The rest decides what happens when she does.