Any Hinge users who decided to check on the status of their love lives this morning were greeted with an error message when the popular dating application conducted routine global app maintenance.
The brief outage meant that dreams of finding The One were put on pause, and it provided a moment of reflection, as Twitter users quickly noted that the timing coincided with International Women’s Day.
"Hinge going down on International Women's Day is the ultimate 2023 sign for women to stop putting up with the Clapham fuckboys," writer Meehika Barua tweeted.
The app, which launched in 2013, has around 20 million users, with 800,000 of them paying for its premium services. Hinge is the third-most-downloaded dating application in the US after Tinder and Bumble. The app has always been positioned as a more intentional alternative that is ultimately, as its marketing promises, “designed to be deleted.”
Users typically create their profile by responding to a series of question prompts using a combination of photos, trivia, and its popular audio feature to create a better-quality profile and more meaningful matches.
The global outage meant that singles looking for love or just some light ego-boosting conversation were unable to make any matches, edit their profiles, or continue with existing conversations with the individuals they had matched with.
The outage felt like a bit of a triumph for every woman who's ever had a terrible encounter on a dating app.
Being on Hinge is like signing up for a particular kind of emotional roller coaster, with highs and lows.
Some people took it as a sign.
It was at least a sign that people should probably exchange contact info because you never know when your app is going to need maintenance.
But some users have already started working on their backup strategy if Hinge is no longer an option.
But one thing the app doesn't lack is entertainment.
The lesson here is not to let dating app maintenance stop you from finding The One; if you haven't already, consider exchanging numbers with the person you've matched with.
And lastly, if an app being down brings you joy, it's probably time to delete it altogether.