How to Get Your Happn Profile Certified

Go to the page where you edit your profile, select Let's go, and follow the prompt to copy a head gesture while you look at the screen. happn compares the biometric data from that short video with the photos on your account. When the two line up, you get the black badge that tells other members your account has been verified and certified. happn says certification is free, and every member can do it.

1. Open the page where you edit your profile.
2. Select Let's go.
3. Look at the screen and copy the head gesture the app shows you.
4. Wait for happn to compare the video with your photos.

That is the whole process, and happn says it is free.

If the first attempt does not go through, happn lists the usual reasons: the check may still be in progress, the light may be too bright or too dark, or your photos may not look enough like the face in the video. Fix whichever one fits and try again.

A black badge on a member's page means happn has verified and certified that person. In plain terms, it says the face in the photos belongs to the person using the account.

You will see the badge on other people too. It works the same way in both directions. When you see it on a woman's page, you know her photos are really her. When she sees it on yours, she knows the same thing about you.

Women on dating apps are wary, and they have reason to be. a dating coach says that anyone who has dated online long enough has met someone who did not look like their photos. Women run into it too, and some of them have been burned more than once.

a dating coach also says a woman needs to feel three things before she agrees to leave the app and see a man in person: attraction, comfort and commitment. Comfort is the one the badge helps with. She still needs to know you are a real person and not some strange account. The badge answers that question before you have typed a word.

It costs nothing, it takes a couple of minutes, and it removes a doubt she might never mention but still act on. There is very little reason to skip it.

It helps most in two cases. If your photos are unusually good, she may wonder whether they are really you, and the badge tells her they are. If your account is new and thin, she has little else to judge you by, and the badge gives her one solid reason to trust what she sees.

The certification compares your video with your photos, so the photos decide whether it goes through.

Make sure at least one photo shows your face clearly, looking toward the camera, without sunglasses or a hat pulled low. If every photo you have is a group shot, a distant beach shot or a dark bar shot, the app has little to compare against. Neither does she.

Take the video somewhere bright, with the light in front of you rather than behind you. Hold the phone steady at face height, look at the screen, and copy the gesture calmly rather than rushing it.

happn says that changing your pictures can remove the badge, and then you have to certify again.

That matters, because you should be changing your photos. a dating coach has tested his photos constantly for years, swapping in new ones and dropping the ones that have gone stale. Keep doing that. Just redo the certification each time you make a real change, so the badge stays on your page.

A good habit is to finish your photo changes in one sitting, then certify once at the end, rather than swapping one picture a week and losing the badge every time.

The badge tells her you look like your photos. That is all it does.

It will not make a weak photo attractive, and it will not make a dull first line interesting. It gets you a fair look from a woman who might otherwise have wondered whether you were real. What happens after that look depends on the photos she sees, the few lines you wrote about yourself, and the first thing you send her.

So certify, because it is free and it helps. Then spend your real effort on the parts she judges you on.