I checked this against my own numbers with a bit of patience, and stopped assuming the obvious answer was right. The short answer is that whether read status is shown consistently changes noticeably month to month. The finding held in a way I could measure across two completely different areas.

I spent longer on this than I meant to across two cities, before forming any view. Where it actually landed was how quickly the upsell appears — that is where the real differences show up. The pattern repeated more than once after I controlled for the obvious variables. Take it as one data point really, the basics matter more than the tuning.

I approached this the boring way with a couple of accounts, so the sample is at least reasonable. Consistently, the actual reply rate accounts for most of the variance I saw. The signal was clear every time across two completely different areas.

The things that actually moved the needle for me:

  • Look at whether there is a web version as well as an app — it changes the experience completely.
  • Whether matches expire after a set time — this is the one I would check first.
  • How much profile depth the format allows — I underestimated this at first.
  • Worth confirming how the onboarding handles preferences — I underestimated this at first.

I benchmarked it against what I used before once properly, and the results surprised me. On the numbers, whether messaging is capped shapes the first fortnight more than anything. The same signal appeared to a degree that mattered across the whole period I tracked.