Open the Safety Toolbox, the shield with a heart on it, tap Get Verified, and record a short video selfie. POF compares the selfie with your main photo, and if the two match you get a verified badge. The selfie itself never shows up for other members, and if you later change or delete your main photo, the badge comes off until you verify again.

The steps

There are only a few taps between you and the badge.

Go to your Profile. Tap the Safety Toolbox, which is the icon of a shield with a heart. Tap Get Verified. POF then asks you to take a video selfie, and it checks that video against your main photo. If it decides they show the same man, the verified badge appears.

Do it somewhere with decent light, facing the camera, without a hat or sunglasses. You are trying to make it easy for the check to see that the face in the video is the face in the photo.

What POF is checking

POF is answering one question: is the man in the main photo the man holding the phone?

That is all the badge means. It does not say you are a good date or that your other photos are recent. It says your main photo is really you. The video selfie is only used for the check, and it does not appear on your page for women to see.

Why the badge is worth having

From a woman's side, the apps come with a real worry about fake accounts. Women who date online take more precautions than men do, because they are usually in more physical danger when they meet a stranger. Before she answers a man she has never met, she wants some sign he is who he says he is.

A verified badge settles the first part of that before she has to ask. It tells her the face she is looking at belongs to a real man who was willing to prove it. That makes her a little more comfortable liking you back, and a little more comfortable answering your first message.

It will not turn a weak set of photos into a strong one. But when two men look about equally good to her, the one she does not have to wonder about has an edge.

Why your main photo matters twice

Since POF checks the selfie against your main photo, that photo needs to look like you now.

A picture from five years and fifteen pounds ago is a problem on its own. Women judge you by your weakest photo, and a lead photo that does not match the man who shows up to the date is the worst kind of weak. If it no longer looks like you, replace it before you verify.

Choose a main photo where your face is clear, the light is good, and nobody else is in the frame. That photo does the most work in Meet Me anyway, so getting it right helps you whether you verify or not.

The same goes for the rest of your photos, even though POF only checks the main one. A badge sitting next to pictures that flatter you by ten years makes the gap more obvious when you meet, not less. Use photos that look like you on a good day, and the badge simply confirms what she already believes about you.

Changing your lead photo takes the badge away

Remember that the badge is tied to one photo. If you change or delete your main photo, POF removes the badge until you go through the check again.

That is worth knowing if you like to test different lead photos. Swapping them is a good way to find out which one gets you the most likes, but every swap costs you the badge. Settle on your lead photo first, then verify. If you do change it later, run through the steps again straight away so you are not left without the badge for weeks.

Before the first date

The badge proves your photo is real. It does not replace the ordinary checks before you meet.

If you have any doubt about a woman, suggest a short phone or video call before you set a date. A few minutes on a call tells you whether she looks like her photos and whether you actually enjoy talking to her, and it saves you an evening with someone you would not have picked.

Keep the suggestion casual so it does not sound like a screening: "I'm better on the phone than over text. Want to talk for ten minutes tonight?" A woman who is interested will usually be glad of a short call, and one who flatly refuses has told you something useful.

When you do meet, choose a busy, public place and let someone know where you will be. She will be doing the same, and a man who makes that easy for her starts the date on the right foot.