A Boost moves you to the front for 60 minutes, so more members see you during that hour. If you buy one, you can store it and activate it whenever you choose. Inner Circle suggests using it at popular times, which it gives as 7pm to 9pm. Its terms say boosted members are shown as boosted, and that a Boost comes with no promise of matches.

What an hour at the front does

For those 60 minutes you are moved to the front, so more of the members who are browsing come across you. When the hour is up, the Boost is over.

That is all a Boost changes: how many people see you, for one hour. It does not change your photos, what you wrote, or how women react to either. It puts more eyes on the same page.

Pick the hour on purpose

A stored Boost waits for you, so there is no reason to use it the moment you buy it. Choose the hour.

Inner Circle names 7pm to 9pm as popular times, which fits how most people use dating apps. They are home, they have eaten, and they have a few minutes on the sofa. A Boost at nine in the morning on a workday spends your hour in a much emptier room.

a dating coach adds a timing point of his own from other apps. A Boost tends to work best when you have not been active on the app for a while and have not been shown to many people lately. Boost again and again in quick succession, and there are fewer fresh, active people left to show you to, so each one does less.

Fix the page before you pay to show it

Inner Circle suggests having your page more than half complete before you boost. That is a low bar, so aim well above it.

a dating coach describes the features that push you up an app's list as multipliers. That sounds good until you remember what happens when you multiply zero. If your photos and your few lines about yourself are not getting interest now, a Boost shows that same page to more women for an hour, and more women pass. His advice is to make sure you are getting at least some results without paying before you try anything that multiplies them.

So check the basics first. Does your first photo make your face easy to see, without a crowd or sunglasses in the way? Do the rest come from different days, or all from one afternoon? Did you write anything she could ask you a question about? If any answer disappoints you, fix that before you spend a Boost.

Answer messages for the whole hour

A Boost brings interest in a burst, and interest cools quickly.

Plan to be free for the hour you use it, with your phone and nothing better to do. Reply to likes and to women who write while the interest is fresh. a dating coach tells a story about a woman who gave him her number without being asked and told him to text her instead, because he had been slow to answer her in the app. Speed matters on any app, and during a Boost it matters most.

What being shown as boosted means

The terms say boosted members appear as boosted, so a woman may know why she is seeing you.

That is not something to worry about. Plenty of people pay for visibility on dating apps, and it says very little about you. What she judges is your page and your first few lines to her. If those are good, how she found you stops mattering within a minute.

Why it cannot promise you matches

Inner Circle is careful to say a Boost comes with no promise of matches, and that is the honest way to see it. You are buying an audience, not an answer.

Think of a Boost as a test with a bigger sample. a dating coach's approach to anything you pay for on the apps is to try it, compare it with not using it, and drop it if it makes no real difference. Use one Boost at a good hour with your best page, and watch what comes in. If the hour brings real interest, use them when you have time to follow up. If it brings nothing, the Boost was not the problem, and more of them will not fix what is.