Why Does Photo Selector Skip Your Group Photos?

Because it is designed to. Tinder says Photo Selector is built to exclude group photos, and it asks that you only use the feature to find photos of yourself. The tool is available on Android and iOS worldwide, so the rule is the same whichever phone you use.

Photo Selector exists to find photos of you. It learns your face from a selfie or an existing face photo, looks through your phone for shots of you, and suggests the ones that might work.

Group photos fall outside that job, so Tinder has built the tool to leave them out. It also asks users to point the feature only at photos of themselves. That is the whole reason. The skip says nothing about whether your group photos are any good.

Even if the tool did suggest them, a group photo is rarely the right one to lead with.

Picture it from her side. She sees four men at a wedding, all roughly the same age, all in suits. She has about a second to decide. Which one is you? Most women will not stop to work it out. Some will guess, and hope you are the tall one, and be disappointed. One experienced dating coach, reviewing a man's page, put it simply: it was a cool photo, but he had no idea which of the people in it was the man he was looking at.

Then there is the comparison problem. A group shot puts you next to your friends, and she cannot help ranking you against them. If the man beside you is taller or better dressed, you have handed her a reason to prefer someone who is not even on the app.

That does not mean group photos have no place. One good one can do something a solo photo cannot. It shows her you have friends, that people enjoy your company, and that you have a life away from your phone.

The trick is to use it like that, as support, not as the lead. A few rules keep it working for you:

• Keep it further down the set, never first.
• Make sure you are easy to find. Being in the middle of the group, facing the lens, helps a lot.
• Use fewer group photos than solo photos. One is usually enough.
• Choose a candid moment over a posed line up. A shot where people are laughing at a table, with you at the center of it, looks like a real evening.

Photo Selector only suggests. Tinder says the feature only collects the photos you choose to upload, so what ends up on your page is always your call.

That means a group shot you want to use is one you pick yourself, rather than one the tool hands you. Just make sure you have at least one clear photo of your face alone before it, so she knows exactly who she is looking at when she gets to the group.

The tool's preference for solo photos is a sensible one for most men. A page built mostly of clear photos of you, in different places and different clothes, is easier to read and easier to trust.

It also forces you to show more of yourself. A man hiding behind friends in every shot can look like he has nothing to show on his own. Now picture a man with a strong solo photo, a photo somewhere he spends time, and a photo doing something he really does. He has given her a full picture without leaning on anyone.

If the group photo was doing the job of showing you have a social life, your words can do that job too.

A line in your bio or About Me section about the Sunday football game you never miss, or the friend's dinner you always end up cooking, tells her the same thing as a group photo. It also gives her something to ask about, which a crowded photo rarely does.

So let Photo Selector do what it does best, finding clear photos of you. Add one well chosen group shot yourself if you have a good one, and let the rest of the page show the life around you.