Tap Menu, then Dating, tap the icon at the top right, then Dating preferences, then Dating location. Tap Add locations and search for the place you want. To remove an extra location, go back to the same screen, tap the delete icon next to it and confirm. Facebook caps how many extra locations you can hold and how often you can change each one, so choose them with care.

Adding a location

  1. Open the Facebook app, tap Menu, then tap Dating.
  2. Open your Dating profile from the top right.
  3. Tap Dating preferences.
  4. Tap Dating location.
  5. Tap Add locations.
  6. Search for the location you want and select it.

Once it is added, Dating can show you suggested matches there, and the people there can see that you are looking in their area.

Removing a location

  1. Go back to Dating preferences and tap Dating location.
  2. Tap the delete icon next to the location you want to remove.
  3. Confirm.

The limits worth planning around

Facebook limits how many extra locations you can add, and it limits how often you can change each one. The exact numbers are on Facebook's help page, and they can change, so check there if you are close to the edge.

The practical effect is simple. You cannot flick locations on and off every day. A location you add on a whim may stay with you for a while before you can swap it. So add places you will genuinely be in, not places you are idly curious about.

If you do not see the option

Extra locations are part of Match Anywhere, and Facebook says that feature is only available to some people. It is also not available on newly created Dating accounts.

If Add locations is not there, you have not missed a setting. You simply do not have the feature. You can still change your primary Dating location from the same Dating location screen when you actually move.

Pick places you will really be

Every extra location should answer one question: could I realistically have a drink with a woman there in the next month or two?

Good answers are the city you are moving to, a city you visit for work every few weeks, or the place your family lives and you go back to often. A beach town you might visit someday is not a good answer. It fills your suggestions with women you will never meet, and it spends a limited slot.

Timing it around a move or a trip

For a move, add the new city a week or two before you arrive. That gives you time to start conversations and set up a first date or two for your first week. Arriving with plans already made is far better than arriving to an empty calendar.

For a trip, add the location shortly before you go, not months ahead. A woman is interested in a man who will be around next Thursday. She is much less interested in a man who might visit sometime next season.

When the move is done, you can remove the old city and update your primary location. When the trip is over, remove it once Facebook lets you, so your suggestions go back to women you can actually see.

What to say when she is in another city

Distance changes one thing about your first messages. She needs to know early that you are really coming.

Open like you would with anyone: short, light and about something specific in her photos or answers. Then, within the first few replies, give her the facts. "I'm moving to Austin next month, so I'm scouting the good spots early. Where would you take someone on their first week?" That is honest, it gives her an easy question, and it points straight at a plan.

Once she is warm, name a day. Ask for her number before you arrive, so the date does not depend on either of you opening the app at the right moment. A match in another city only counts if it ends with the two of you at the same table.