What Boost Does on Happn and How to Use It

A Boost puts you among the top people around you on happn for a limited time. While it runs, you are the first person that active users near you see on their home page, as long as they fit your preferences. You can start one from My Account by tapping the thunder-shaped icon below your photo. You can also start one from the Main Page with the thunder icon in the bottom left corner. The time it has left is shown underneath.

Normally, where you appear on someone's home page depends on the ordinary workings of the app. A Boost moves you to the front. For the length of the Boost, you sit at the top for the people around you who are using happn and who fit what you are looking for.

Two words in that description matter. "Active" means the Boost only reaches people who are on the app while it runs. "Around you" means it works on the people near where you are at that moment. Both of those shape how you should use it.

What a Boost does not change is what she sees when she gets to you. It buys attention. Your photos and your bio decide what that attention turns into.

From your account:

1. Open My Account.
2. Tap the thunder-shaped icon below your photo.

From the Main Page:

1. Tap the thunder icon in the bottom left corner.

Once it is running, the time remaining shows below the icon. If you have no Boosts left, happn's shop is where you get more.

Because a Boost only reaches people who are active, timing is most of the game. An hour when few people have the app open is an hour of Boost that reaches very few people.

a dating program's advice for boosts on other apps is to spend them in the windows when the most people are using the app, and the same logic applies here. An ordinary evening, when people are home with their phones, is usually a better bet than the middle of a working morning.

a dating coach adds a second point from his own experience. A Boost does best when you have not been active for a while and have not already been shown to many people. Fire one off after a quiet week and it lands on a fresh audience. Fire them off one after another and each one does a little less.

A Boost puts more women in front of you in a short time, so any weakness on your page gets seen by more of them too.

Check three things before you tap. Your first photo should show your face clearly, in good light, with nobody else in the frame. Your other photos should look like an ordinary week you would actually want to share with someone. And your bio should contain at least one thing she could reply to. My rule for the bio is simple: do not be boring, because you are competing with every other man who also cleared her bar.

If any of those is weak, fix it first. A Boost on a weak page just shows more women a reason to pass.

Be around. A Boost that brings in Likes and Crushes while your phone is in a drawer is attention you have paid for and then ignored.

My approach when he boosts is to sit back, let the matches come in, and put his effort into the conversations rather than into looking for more people. When a Crush lands, write a first line that shows you looked at what she put up. On happn, the area you both use is an easy opener: light, specific and easy to answer.

Then his rule for the next Boost is to work through everyone the last one brought in before starting another. If you get a rush of Crushes at once, some of them slip through the cracks unless you answer them. Finish the conversations, move the good ones toward a plan, and only then think about buying more attention.

My view on paid features is that many men are too proud to use them. They treat paying as needy and lose out for it. If a small amount of money saves you hours on the apps, that is often a good trade, especially if your time is worth something to you.

But he is just as firm that the proof is your own results, not his opinion or the app's promise. So test it. Run a Boost on an evening when you are around to respond, and compare it with an ordinary evening. Count the Likes, the Crushes and the conversations that head toward a plan.

If the Boost clearly beats a normal night, it is worth buying again, spaced out from the last one. If it barely moves anything, keep your money and work on your first photo and your bio instead.