Do You Need a Phone Number to Sign Up for Hinge?

Yes. To keep accounts secure, Hinge requires every member to verify a mobile phone number by entering the SMS code Hinge sends to it. After that you link and verify an email address, and you can also connect a Google Account or Apple ID to make logging in easier.

Hinge's help page on logging in lays out the account side of sign-up in three steps.

1. Your mobile number. Hinge texts you a code, and you type it in to verify the number.
2. Your email address. You link it to the account and verify it.
3. Optionally, a Google Account or Apple ID, which you can connect for easier login.

There is no way around the first step. Every account starts with a verified mobile number.

Hinge's stated reason is security, and the code is how that works. When you log in with your phone number, Hinge sends a code by text. A person who knows your number but does not have your phone cannot get in without it, and Hinge says never to share those codes with anyone.

So the number is not really about contacting you. It is the lock on your account.

This is the decision that matters, and most men make it without a thought.

Hinge does not let members change the phone number linked to an account, and its support team cannot change it for you. If you lose access to the number later, the route Hinge offers is deleting the account tied to it and starting a fresh one. That takes every match and conversation you built with it.

So use your real, everyday number. Not a work phone you will hand back when you change jobs. Not a number you are about to drop when your contract ends. The number you sign up with is the number the account lives or dies with.

If you are about to move abroad or switch carriers, sort out your number first and sign up after. Five minutes of planning now saves you from starting over later.

Once the account is set up, tap your Photo Icon, then the Gear Icon, and scroll to Connected Accounts. Tap the toggle next to Google Account or Apple ID until it turns purple.

That gives you another way to log in besides your phone number. Linking Google only connects your login. It does not give Hinge your Gmail. And do not plan on Facebook as a backup. Hinge no longer allows Facebook login, because of an update from Meta.

Some men hesitate at sign-up because they do not want strangers to have their number. Handing the number to Hinge is a separate thing from handing it to a woman you matched with. When you share it with her is entirely your call.

a dating coach's gameplan gives a clear answer on timing. Not in the first message, and not before she has warmed up. You open with something light, get a flirty back and forth going, and wait until she is clearly engaged. Then you trade numbers. In the US and Canada, the phone is the natural next place for a conversation that is going well, and it makes the whole thing more personal. It also means she is no longer reading your texts in the same inbox as every other man on the app.

The account setup takes a few minutes. What happens after it decides whether you get dates.

a dating coach is blunt that your photos do nearly all the work, and that a great prompt cannot carry weak photos. Put your best recent photos first, ones that show your face clearly and a life she can picture. Write prompts that give her something to react to, because the aim is for her to feel like messaging you first. Fill the page out most of the way, not to the last field.

Then use it regularly. a dating coach's read is that the apps favor people who are active, and that logging in a few times a week is enough to count.

You need a mobile number to sign up for Hinge, verified with a code by text, followed by an email address. Use a number you will keep for years, add Google or Apple as a second login, and save your number for the women you actually want to see.