Which Dating App Is Best for Meeting People From Other Countries?

No single app is best everywhere. The best one is whichever the locals in the country you care about actually use, set to that country before you arrive. Tinder, Bumble, Hinge and OkCupid all have ways to show you a place other than the one you are standing in, and what each allows is different. Pick the app by the place, not by its reputation at home, because the matches you get depend on who is active there.

Apps are not equally busy in every country. An app with a crowded feed in your city can be nearly empty in another one, and an app you never heard of can be the one everyone there uses.

None of these apps publishes a user count by country, so you cannot read the answer off a chart. You find it out in two ways. Ask a local what she and her friends use, which takes ten seconds at a language exchange or a hostel bar. Or download two candidates, set the location, and look at what comes up. A feed with many recent, active faces is a good sign. A feed that runs dry after a dozen is not.

Location tools are what let you start before you land.

• Tinder has Passport Mode for subscribers. You search for a city or drop a pin, and you appear there. You can only be in one city at a time.
• Bumble has Travel Mode on its higher paid tiers. It shows you profiles from the place you pick for a set period, and it does not change your real GPS.
• Hinge has no travel mode in its help pages. You place your own location pin and update it yourself.
• OkCupid lets you edit the location on your page for free, though Discover still follows your phone.

Read what each one does before you pay. A travel feature changes who you see, and it does not change who she is willing to meet, which is where the effort goes.

a dating coach's habit when he travels is to start on the apps before he gets there. He lands with conversations already going and an evening already planned, instead of spending the first week swiping from scratch.

Do the same. Set the new place a few days ahead, write to women who look like people you would enjoy, and say plainly that you arrive on a certain day. A woman who knows you are in town until Saturday understands the window is real, and she can say yes or no without wondering.

Switch the location back when you get home. A forgotten setting leaves you showing up in a city you left, and anyone who lives there cannot meet you.

Women from other countries are not a category. What counts as a normal first message, how fast people move to a meeting, and who is expected to suggest a plan all vary by place.

Read her page for clues, and watch how she writes. If her English is careful, keep your sentences short and plain. Skip slang and jokes that depend on a local reference. If you speak her language even a little, a line in it can set you apart, but only if you mean it and can carry on after the first sentence.

Do not lead with where she comes from. A line that makes her nationality the point reads as a collection, and most women notice it quickly.

Pick one specific thing from her page, say something light about it, and ask a question she can answer in a sentence. If she mentions a dish, a city she loves or a trip, ask about that. Then move to a plan within a few messages: a coffee or a drink somewhere easy to reach and easy to leave.

A location setting is for meeting people where you will really be. Setting a city you have no plans to visit gets you matches who ask when you are free, and you will have nothing honest to say.

Stay within what each app allows. Use the tools it offers, and if an app has no travel mode, set your real location and update it when you move.

If you are in a country for months, treat the apps as a supplement, the way coach treats them in your home city. Add a place where people actually meet, such as a language class, a sports club or a regular night out with friends.

The apps give you the first conversation. A woman is far more likely to say yes to a man she has also seen in the same room. A few weeks of showing up at the same place will teach you more about local dating than any feature list.