Should You Keep Swiping While Your Tinder Boost Is Running?

Yes. Tinder's own advice is to turn on a Boost or Super Boost and then start swiping to see results. Its explainer on how matching works adds that Tinder gives priority to potential matches who are active, and active at the same time as you. A Boost you switch on right before you put your phone away spends most of its window on a man who is not there.

A Boost puts you in front of more people for a short window. That part happens whether you are looking at the screen or not.

What happens next depends on you. Tinder says it favors people who are active, and people who are active at the same time. While you are swiping, you are one of those people. The women seeing you during the Boost are on the app too, so when a like goes both ways, you can both see the match while it is fresh.

Turn it on and walk off, and the window still runs. You just come back an hour later to matches from women who have since closed the app.

Tinder is careful about what it promises. It says a Boost or Super Boost does not ensure a match. It raises your chances, and Tinder says that lift can carry on even after the Boost is over.

Most wasted Boosts are wasted by timing, not by the feature.

Turn it on when you can sit with the app for a while. An evening at home on the sofa works. Standing in line for coffee does not, because you will get three swipes in and then have to put the phone back in your pocket.

a dating coach's view on paid features like this one is practical. Try it with a Boost and try it without, and you will find out quickly whether it does anything for you. One Boost on a bad night tells you very little. A few of them, on evenings when you are actually in the app, tell you a lot.

A Boost makes more women see you, which tempts men to swipe right on everyone while it lasts. That is the wrong way round.

Every right swipe during a Boost has a better chance than usual of turning into a match. So each one should be a woman you would actually want to talk to. Look past her first photo. Read what she wrote. If you would not enjoy a drink with her, swipe left and keep going.

Men who like everyone during a Boost end the night with a long list of matches they do not care about. The two or three worth talking to get buried in the middle of it.

The best thing about swiping during a Boost is that the matches arrive while she is still on the app. That is the easiest moment there is to start a conversation, and most men waste it by waiting until tomorrow.

Answer each new match within a few minutes if you can. Keep the first line short and make it about her. Pick one thing from her photos or her words and say something only she could answer.

"You look far too pleased with that fish. Did you actually catch it?" gives her something to reply to. "Hey, how's your night?" gives her nothing she has not already read five times today.

If she answers quickly, keep it light and quick back. You are both online, so the chat can move at the speed of a real conversation.

Tinder says a Boost can raise your chances even after it is over. That fits with how it treats activity: the people who are on the app get priority.

So do not close the app the second the Boost finishes. Stay a little longer. Answer the matches that came in, swipe a little more, and check back later in the evening. Not every woman who saw you during the Boost decides in that window. Some of them will like you an hour later.

A Boost multiplies what your page already does. It shows you to more women. It does not change what they see when they get there.

If an ordinary evening of swiping gets you almost no matches, a Boost will get you slightly more of almost none. Fix the photos first. Lead with a clear, recent shot of your face, then follow it with photos of you somewhere real, doing something. Buy the Boost once there is something worth showing to more people.

The same goes for what happens after the match. If women match and then never answer your first line, more visibility will not change that. Better openers will.

Keep swiping. Turn the Boost on when you have time to use it, like only the women you would actually talk to, answer your matches while you are both online, and stay a little past the end.