How Do You Stop Seeing Someone You Know on Tinder?

Use Tinder's Block Contacts feature. Go to Settings, scroll to Block Contacts, give Tinder access to your phone's contacts, choose the people under the Contacts tab and tap Block Contacts. The one catch: if the phone number or email you have saved for someone is not what they signed up with, Tinder cannot stop the two of you seeing each other.

1. Open Tinder and tap the profile icon.
2. Go to Settings.
3. Scroll down to Block Contacts.
4. Give Tinder access to your contacts when it asks.
5. Under the Contacts tab, select the people you want to block.
6. Tap Block Contacts.

That is the whole process. You pick names from the contacts already on your phone, and Tinder uses those details to keep you and those people from seeing each other.

Your phone will ask whether Tinder can see your contacts, because that is how the feature finds the people you want to block. If you decline, the tool has nothing to work with. You still choose exactly who goes on the list. Giving access does not block anyone by itself.

Tinder is upfront about the limit. If the contact information you use for someone does not match the information they signed up with, it will not be able to stop you seeing each other.

There are a few ordinary ways the details can differ:

• You have an old phone number saved for her, and she signed up with a different one.
• You have her work email, and she signed up with a personal address.
• You only have one way of reaching her, and it is not the one she used to sign up.

So before you block someone who really matters, check that the contact on your phone is current. And accept that the tool can only work with the details you give it.

Block Contacts is built for exactly the people you already know, the ones saved in your phone.

The usual candidates are an ex, a coworker, a boss, a client, a relative, or a close friend's girlfriend. Think of anyone who would make you wince if they came up in your recommendations, or who would make Monday morning awkward if they saw you.

You do not need to block your whole address book. Pick the few people who genuinely matter and leave everyone else alone.

There is one person the tool can help with in a way you might not want to admit: the ex you keep half hoping to see.

If part of the reason you open the app is to find out whether she is on it too, block her. Looking at her photos, or wondering whether she has seen yours, keeps you stuck on the one woman you already know is not the answer. Dating goes far better when your attention is on women you have not met yet.

Blocking an ex is not a message to her. It is a favor to yourself.

The same applies to any woman you are still hung up on, whether it was a relationship or a few dates that ended before you were ready. Every time her face appears, it pulls you back into a conversation that is already over. Take her out of the picture, and the women in front of you get your full attention, which is what they deserve and what gets you dates.

Sometimes the tool misses someone, or you did not think to add them, and a coworker turns up as a match.

Handle it lightly. You do not need to panic, and you do not need to write to them. If you would rather keep work separate, unmatch quietly. If you see them at work, say nothing unless they do, and if they do, a smile and a line about it being a small world is plenty.

The one firm rule is to keep work relationships clean. Never start something with a person you manage, or with anyone whose job depends on you.

It is easy to feel caught out when someone you know sees you on a dating app. There is no need. Online dating is an ordinary way for single people to meet, and anyone who sees you there is using the same app for the same reason.

So use Block Contacts for the few people you truly need to avoid, then stop thinking about who might spot you. Every minute spent worrying about the people you know is a minute not spent on the women you want to meet.