Survey: How often do Americans update their dating app profiles?

When did you last update your online dating profile? Do you still look like your pics? Are you looking for the same things you were when you first signed up?

Or have you ever gone on a date with someone who didn’t look like their pics at all? If nothing else will, that’s bound to get you thinking about how well dating app profiles represent the people behind them.

At Hily, we’ve been thinking about it too. After all, people change all the time, right? They get new haircuts, they move to new cities and states, they learn new stuff and start new habits and hobbies. But do their profiles change with them? We asked 3,700 Gen Z and Millennial Americans about their profile maintenance habits. Here’s what we found.

Can You Trust Pics On Dating Apps?

It would be strange to hear a date tell you that you don’t look like your profile pics, right? Indeed, not many young Americans have heard that. Only about 12% of women and 10% of men we’ve surveyed have ever been told they don’t look like their photos.

However, it seems that a lot of people are seeing something without saying something. When asked if they’d ever been on the opposite side of the story, that is, arriving at a date to find a person who doesn’t look like their pics, the stats were completely different.

Over half of young Americans have gone on a date just to discover that the person didn’t look like their photos. This problem seems to be worse for Millennials: a whopping 67% of Millennial men and 58% of women say this has happened to them.

It appears that this deception has led to a lot of second (and even first) dates simply never happening. The majority of people we’ve surveyed say they’ve ended a date or refused to meet again because their match didn’t look like their photos. Again, Millennials have it a bit worse: over 60% of both women and men say they’ve done this, while for Gen Zers the number is slightly over half.

In fact, a lot of young American daters admit that their dating app pics aren’t 100% true to real life. Interestingly, Millennials, who seemed to encounter a mismatch more often, were more confident in their own photos—66% of Millennial women and 65% of men were confident enough to rate their pics as exactly matching their IRL looks. For Gen Z women and men, the numbers were 52% and 53%, respectively.

However, there are also very few people who say their photos don’t look like them at all. The survey found that around 45% of Gen Zers and 33% of Millennials see their own profile pics as close to their actual looks, but not quite there.

Dating Profiles Are Ready for a Spring Cleaning

Perhaps this photographic inaccuracy comes from the fact that those pics aren’t regularly updated: 16% of women and 17% of men we surveyed haven’t updated their pics for over half a year. A lot of things can happen in that time.

In fact, 9% of women and 12% of men admit they’re unlikely to change their profile pics, even if their appearance changes.

Luckily, the vast majority are still inclined to update their profile if things do change. Women are more confident about making these updates: 51% say they’re very likely to reflect the changes in their appearance in their online dating profile, compared to 42% of men who say the same.

Some people like the aesthetics of one specific season. Others like to change with the weather. Pics on dating apps often reflect that. But 29% of women and 42% of men say they’re unlikely to match their profile pics with the season, which may also contribute to the discrepancy between what you see on the app and what you see in person. After all, winter clothes obscure our bodies. All those skiers and snowboarders from the apps probably look very different in the hot summer sun.

But looks aren’t the only thing that changes. It’s just as disappointing, for example, to match with someone because they’re interested in a long-term relationship, only to find out they aren’t looking for that now, even though their profile says they are. The survey shows that, among young American daters, 20% of women and 17% of men have never updated the ‘looking for’ section in their online dating profile.

Why Daters Keep Their Profile Up-to-Date (or Not)

So why do daters keep profiles that no longer match who they are? Among Gen Z women, the most common reason is the fear of being judged for their looks, which was an issue for 32% surveyed. Millennial women are split between wondering what they should add to their profile and thinking it won’t make a difference no matter what they put there, with 26% mentioning each.

For men, the belief that it doesn’t make a difference is the most common reason, with 34% of Millennials and 30% of Gen Z men following that line of reasoning. Another common reason is not knowing what to put on their profile (26% of Gen Z and 27% of Millennials), a factor that is more or less equally common for women and men of both demographics.

Men are less likely than women to fear judgment for their appearance and slightly more likely to simply be too lazy to update their dating apps.

So what pushes young daters to review their profiles and change what no longer fits? By far the most common answer is getting new good photos, which is a motivating factor for over half of women and 44% of men. Another common reason for both is a major life change, like moving or changing jobs. Men are also motivated to update their profiles when they aren’t getting matches or feel they have bad visibility on the app. Women are more motivated to update when they don’t like the matches they’re already getting.

Then again, for 19% of women and 14% of men, there is nothing at all that would motivate them to update their profile.

Still, this survey may have nudged some people into taking a long, hard look at their profile to decide if it’s still good to go. Among the people surveyed, 49% of men and over 60% of women said they were likely to do an overhaul after taking the survey. It seems that spring cleaning of dating profiles could actually be happening—are you joining in?

Conclusion

A lot of young American daters encounter mismatches between what they see on dating app profiles and what they find in person. For a variety of reasons, quite a few people don’t regularly update their profile pics, some not even when their looks change. Women tend to be afraid of being judged for their appearance, while men feel like the content of their profile doesn’t make a difference. A lot of women and men just don’t know what to put in their profiles.

It seems that new good photos and major life changes are key motivators for profile updates. Another common driver is wanting matches, either better, or any at all.