Tinder Smart Photos promises the end of your suffering: select the best photos automatically to increase your matches.
Sounds perfect, doesn't it?
Knowing how Tinder (and most dating apps) only go after their users' money, it's better to take a closer look at every feature before trusting them blindly.
That's why in this article, we will learn:
- What is Tinder Smart Photos
- If it works
- The common alternative
- The best option to get an attractive profile
- Plus, some tips on how to edit and select your profile pictures.
By the end of the article, you will be able to decide if using Tinder's Smart Photos is the best choice for success.
Ready? Let's go!
Shortcuts to skip right into what you want to know:
What are Tinder Smart Photos?
Tinder Smart Photos is another algorithm from Tinder that claims to evaluate your profile pictures and rearrange them according to their effectiveness.
The feature has been around since 2016, and according to Tinder, profiles that use it have an average increase of 12% more matches.
With this, the first question that arises is how Smart Photos work.
How Does Tinder Smart Pictures Work
Smart Photos is simple: it finds the picture that people swipe right the most and bumps it to be the first photo of your profile to increase likes and matches.
In the early days, Tinder would send a notification to inform each user whenever the order of the pics was rearranged and put a banner over it just for the owner to see.
Today, you'll only notice the changes when tapping on your profile or before managing your settings.
How to Activate Tinder Smart Photos
- Tap on Profile
- Go to Edit
- Scroll past the pictures
- Activate Smart Photos
The time to notice the results of Tinder Smart Photos can vary depending on a few factors you'll see in the next section.
Are Tinder Smart Photos Trustworthy?
Sometimes, they are.
See, there are several reasons why Smart Photos aren't the best option to test your Tinder pictures.
Tinder claims this isn't an issue because the algorithm considers different behaviors.
Is it true?
Not exactly.
Some people will swipe mindlessly only on the first pictures, while others will see everything, read the bio, and ignore the picture showing when they swipe.
This creates different inputs that the algorithm should notice but usually doesn't.
The accuracy of Smart Photos increases with the amount of data it collects.
This means that if you live in a low-populated area, in a location where Tinder isn't as popular, or your profile isn't optimized, you won't get as many likes.
A small number of likes will lead to somewhat unreliable information since you might not get them from the people you want to match with.
Therefore, Smart Photos will perform better with an attractive profile in a location with enough activity.
If you put up a profile made of three selfies and a bad picture taken by a drunk friend is highly unlikely that you will get likes.
Let's pretend that you do.
Tinder Smart Photos will grab the one that gets more likes and display it as the main picture.
However, having one picture chosen by the algorithm doesn't mean it's a good picture.
Since it was launched, users all over the world have reported some issues regarding the accuracy and usefulness of Tinder Smart Photos.
Not to mention that some profiles never see the function in action.
Most of the time, that's because of one (or more) of the issues mentioned above than Tinder glitching.
In any case, you should know that Smart Photos is only the last validation phase for a picture rather than a system to test images.
There are alternatives for that, and we will see them in the next section.
An Alternative to Tinder Smart Photos
Photofeeler has been positioned as the preferred way to test pictures for online dating, work, and social media profiles.
This platform is one of the options you have to test how a picture will perform before posting it, which saves you the trouble of losing your Elo score in the name of experimentation.
How Photofeeler Works
The process to test a picture through Photofeeler is quite simple:
- Create an account using an email address, Facebook, or LinkedIn
- Gain Karma (free votes) by voting on other people's pictures or adding credits with real money
- Upload a picture (or several)
- Select the parameters of testing
- Choose the number of votes you want
- Let the test run and wait for your results.
In the case of dating pictures, the parameters to evaluate will be Smartness, Attractiveness, and Trustworthiness.
Besides the score, you can get additional notes regarding the image.
Something you will never find with Tinder Smart Photos.
Unfortunately, Photofeeler isn't all sunshine.
Downsides of Photofeeler
Photofeeler is a much better way to test pictures than uploading them to Tinder and hoping for the best after activating Smart Photos.
The platform will provide feedback and concrete parameters to work on, but there's one big issue with this:
Photofeeler's information isn't objective.
After a few tests, you'll realize some issues that the platform has when it comes to scoring a picture:
- Favors smiling pictures
- Acceptance of close-ups only when the person is attractive
- No pose is ever right
- Looking away from the camera is not good.
As you might imagine, these observations can't apply to every picture and online dating profile:
- A guy smiling in every picture might come across as goofy.
- Every person has a good angle, even if they're not attractive.
- Posing the same way in every photo doesn't make a good profile.
- Looking away from the camera can evoke as many emotions as doing it.
You will also notice that results vary wildly depending on the hour of the day and the day of the week when you run the test.
This is because different types of people will be connected at different times.
Some will vote mindlessly only to gain Karma, while others won't be the type of people you want to attract.
And that's okay because you can still use all of this information to edit and take better pictures in the future.
Using Results for Photo Editing and Photoshoots
Indeed, you can't trust 100% the results of Photofeeler, but as mentioned before, you can take the relevant information as a starting point to make edits or get a better photoshoot.
Pay attention if you get the same additional note several times or if your scores change depending on the type of photo.
Constant comments like "Great smile!" or "Would prefer a different background" tell you what things you are doing right and which ones can improve.
Some will be an easy fix with editing, while others will require to be replaced.
When you are serious about online dating, you should treat your profile like you do with your resume.
This means you can kiss goodbye to selfies, photos with sunglasses, bad shots taken by friends, and pictures where you cut off your insufferable ex.
Photo editing helps immensely but won't make miracles on a low-quality picture.
For an attractive profile, you need professional pictures in various poses and activities that portray you in the best way.
When you get that, it's time to improve with editing.
Hovalo Tip: Find more advice on how to get good pictures for online dating here.
Hovalo Tip: Find more advice on how to get good pictures for online dating here.
Once you have great pictures, it is time for some tuning.
The most important things you need to check are the following:
- Cropping
- Brightness and contrast
- Highlights and shadows
- Tone and saturation
- Angle
Sometimes, the photographer will handle these adjustments when you get a photo shoot.
If you get the files without any improvements, you don't need any fancy program. Your phone and your computer have basic photo editing software that you can use to fix these issues (if there are any).
Now, when you want to make more extensive changes or conceal some imperfections, you should hire a professional photo editor to ensure the quality.
Hovalo Tip: Check in detail everything you need to know about editing pictures for online dating in this article.
Tinder Smart Photos vs Photofeeler
As you can see, despite Photofeeler being better than using Tinder Smart Photos, there are better options to ensure the most attractive profile.
Lucky you, Hovalo has the solution.
The Best Photo Rating System
You are not the only one who got frustrated with the unreliability of Tinder Smart Photos and Photofeeler.
That's why at Hovalo, we created our picture rating system.
Before we build your profile, we will use a combination of Photofeeler and our system to get the absolute best photos.
The final selection for your Tinder profile (or for any other dating app) will be based on objective information gathered in a closed, objective network of collaborators who leave bias aside to ensure results.
Unlike Tinder Smart Photos and Photofeeler, we also evaluate the quality of the edits done by our professional photo editors to ensure that you get the absolute best of every part of the process.
And the most incredible part about our system?
You don't have to worry about anything because we do all for you.
Skip all the Trouble!
Imagine how pleasant it will be to have a Tinder profile gathering constant likes, getting matches, and attending dates without spending time or effort doing any of it.
With our online dating outsourcing service, Hovalo will handle everything from defining your ideal match to help get the best photos, improving them, swiping, matching, having conversations, and arranging dates.
The only thing we can't do is go on a date for you.
Visit our Outsourcing Service page to learn our whole process and get more information on the service.
Final Word on Tinder Smart Photos
Our service didn't convince you?
It's fine; we'll meet again later 
If you want a verdict on using Tinder Smart Photos, here it is.
Go for it when you:
- Have a good set of pictures
- Live in a populated location or with plenty of Tinder users
- Have a good amount of activity on your account.
When those three requirements are fulfilled, activating Smart Photos can help boost your profile with improved results.
And if something fails with the Smart Photos algorithm, you won't have anything to worry about since every picture is already killer.
If you don't meet the three conditions, we recommend improving your pictures before trying the feature.
Schedule a free call and learn how we can help you get killer photos and do online dating for you.
See you at the next one!
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