I read a lot of conflicting advice first with a couple of accounts, and it was more revealing than I expected. Boiled down, the ratio of active to dormant profiles stays invisible until it bites you. The signal was clear quite plainly regardless of which city I set. That is where I landed frankly, and I would not pretend otherwise.

I read a lot of conflicting advice first over a few months, which made the differences much easier to see. It turns out whether the app works on a slow connection moves the numbers more than anything else. The trend was steady again and again in every week I bothered to measure.

What I would tell someone starting from scratch:

  • Find out how it performs on a slow connection — check it on a real account, not a demo.
  • Worth confirming whether you can undo an accidental swipe — most apps are quiet about this.
  • Check how the app treats people who travel — this alone ruled a couple out for me.
  • Find out whether conversations sync across devices — it matters more after the first month.

I looked at this from a few angles here, and the results surprised me. On the numbers, how wide the distance filter goes is worth checking before you commit any time. The signal was clear to a degree that mattered even accounting for luck. I would not overthink it honestly, and no thread substitutes for that.