How Is Distance Measured on Dating Apps?

The app measures from the location it holds for you to the location it holds for her. Bumble takes yours from your phone's GPS. Hinge uses a pin you set yourself. Tinder uses your current location and applies the Maximum Distance you choose. The number you see is only as accurate as those two locations.

Bumble says your phone's GPS location automatically determines where you are on the app. You see other members based on their real-time location, and your general location cannot be customized.

Two details follow from that. Bumble's distance filter is available only in listed countries, so the setting may not exist where you live. And its Liked You Nearby tab sorts the members who are close to your current location by distance, which puts the nearest women at the top.

Bumble also says a VPN can interfere with accurate location detection. If the distances on your screen look wrong, a VPN is one of the first things to switch off.

Hinge does not follow you around. It says it does not automatically update your location when you log in. You set a pin, either from your device location or by typing a city, neighborhood, address or zip code, and you have to update it yourself when you move.

Hinge shows other people only the neighborhood you select and never your exact address. You can also choose to show profiles outside your maximum distance preference, so the distance setting works as a preference more than a wall.

In settings, under Measurement Units, you can show distance in miles or kilometers.

Tinder says it considers distance from your current location. In Discovery there is a Maximum Distance setting, which sets how far out the app looks for people.

Tinder also says it may show people slightly outside that range, especially when it runs out of recommendations. So a woman a little past your limit is not a glitch. The app has run short of closer people and widened the net.

Subscribers who use Passport can change their location, and Tinder says that can make far-away profiles appear for up to 24 hours after the change.

Every app measures from a location, and a location can be off in three ways. Your phone's GPS can be loose indoors. A pin you set on Hinge may still be on the old city. A VPN can hide where you are.

The result is a number on her card that looks exact and is not. Take it as a sign of roughly how far away she is, and ask her where she lives when you start talking.

The distance you set decides who you are shown, and who sees you.

A small radius keeps the women close, which makes dates easy to arrange but shrinks the pool. A large radius gives you more women and more first dates that die at the question of who will travel.

For most men, a radius set to the places they actually go works best. A woman twenty minutes from your apartment is a date you will take. A woman two hours away is a long chat that rarely becomes anything.

If you live in a smaller town, widen the range and accept that some dates will need a drive. If you live in a big city, keep it tight, because nearby women are plenty and the trip costs more than it looks.

On Hinge in particular, your pin stays where you put it. If you travel for a weekend and want to meet women there, change it. If you moved across town, change it.

The mistake to avoid is the opposite: leaving an old location on the app and wondering why the women you see are in a city you left.

• Check the location the app thinks you are in.
• Set the distance range to the area you would really travel.
• Switch off a VPN if the distances look wrong.
• Ask a woman where she is based before you plan a meeting.
• Update a pin you set by hand after you move.

Distance is a setting, and a setting is easy to fix. The part that takes work is the message that gets her to meet you.