What Is Friend's Take on Hinge?

Friend's Take is a Hinge feature that lets friends, family or anyone who knows you well write short takes about you. You send them a link, they pick a prompt about you and answer it, and they do not need a Hinge account to do it. Nothing goes live until you review each take and choose to add it.

You start it from Edit Profile. Tap your Photo icon, tap the Pencil icon, then tap Friend's Take under your profile photo. Tapping Share Link gives you a link to send to whoever you want to hear from.

Your friend opens the link and picks from a list of prompts about you, like "A moment I still laugh about" or "What they're doing at a party." They answer it, and Hinge's help page says they can write the answer or use a photo. They can add a name or nickname and say how they know you, then submit it. If they change their mind, they can close the browser without submitting anything.

Each link stays open for 72 hours or until it collects a set number of takes, whichever comes first. You can have a limited number of links open at once. Hinge warns that anyone with your link can submit a take, so only share it with people you trust.

If you cannot find the option, Hinge's help page describes it for daters who have access to the feature. Its announcement says Friend's Take is available to users everywhere except India.

When a take comes in, Hinge notifies you. You can add it to your profile, delete it, or leave it for now. You cannot edit it.

If you add a take, Hinge says its contents are visible to other members who come across your profile. That includes your friend's name and how they know you. So a take from "Sarah, sister" reads differently from one signed "Big Mike, college roommate," and she will notice who is vouching for you.

You can also hide a take later and put it back, or delete it for good.

Anything you write about yourself, she discounts a little. You wrote it to impress her, and she knows it.

A line from someone else does not carry that discount. What other people say about a man is more believable than what he says about himself. That has always been true in person, and it is true on a dating app. A woman trusts another woman's read on a man most of all, so a take from a sister or a female friend carries real weight.

Hinge's help page puts it neatly: a friend can say in one sentence what would take you a whole profile to explain.

Ask people who have seen you in the world, not just people who like you.

A good mix covers different parts of your life. A friend who knows how you are at a party. A sister or a close female friend who can speak to how you treat people. A coworker or teammate who has seen you under a bit of pressure. Hinge's help page says you can ask anyone who knows you well, including family, coworkers or neighbors.

Skip the friend whose humor only works in the group chat. A roast that kills with the boys can read as a warning to a stranger.

The best takes are small, specific stories. "He once drove four hours to fix my car and would not let me pay for gas" says more than "he is so generous."

It helps to brief people. Tell them a story beats a compliment, and suggest the prompt you think fits them best. Most friends will write something better with one line of direction than with none.

Hinge also says takes should not include private or sensitive information, such as health or money details. They also should not feature people other than you and the friend writing. A good friend will not need telling, but it is worth a mention.

You cannot edit a take, so read each one as a stranger would before you add it. An inside joke, a mention of an ex, or a story about a heavy night out can all read badly to a woman who has never met you.

Takes can be reported like any other content on Hinge. And Hinge says a friend who wrote a take can ask Hinge to delete it. Hinge will tell you about the request and still delete it, even if you object.

Used well, Friend's Take is the easiest credibility you will ever get on a dating app. A couple of good takes make the rest of your page believable, and that makes the likes you get far easier to turn into matches, messages and dates.