Conversations on dating apps can be tricky to navigate.
Is it a red flag if a new connection takes three days to respond? Is a text paragraph vulnerable, or self-centered? Does replying with a lone “k” really mean someone hates you?
Logan Ury, the director of relationship science at Hinge, told Business Insider that this is what’s known as digital body language (DBL), and it isn’t much different from in-person body language, conveying what is unsaid.
Ury said DBL includes “how long somebody waits to respond, whether or not they double-text, what punctuation they use, and if they use emojis.”
From her internal research at Hinge, she’s learned that users — particularly Gen Zers — rely heavily on DBL to quickly gauge a match’s interest in them. Among those daters, there are some widely agreed-upon indicators that a person isn’t actually into you, even if they technically always respond to your texts.
To prevent wasting your time on a confusing situationship, “you want to be good at deciphering somebody’s DBL,” Ury said. She added that it’s important to be aware of how you come off when you do like someone, so that they’re “not misinterpreting how you feel about them.”
She shared some digital body language signs that someone’s not really interested in you.
They always respond, but never consistently
Healthy relationships are built on trust and communication. Naturally, daters look for signs of it from the very first message.
According to a 2024 Hinge report surveying 15,000 Gen Z users, Ury said users have a 44% higher chance of getting responses when they answer messages within 24 hours. Their matches sense more seriousness.
This goes beyond the first few messages. She said 76% of users also look for message consistency. Someone who texts for hours one day but then is MIA for three is widely considered as disinterested.
Because of that, she discourages matches from “playing it cool” or delaying responses when they really like someone. “It’s much better to just not play games and respond quickly because those people are more likely to get onto dates and into relationships,” she said.
Your text bubbles are imbalanced
Deep relationships require reciprocity and a sense of evenness. Beyond timing, Ury said the flow of conversation is a big sign of how interested someone is in you.
But it’s about more than just taking turns hitting each other up, Ury said. “For iPhone users, there needs to be that mix between blue and gray” text bubbles, she said. That includes the match “leading with a question and then offering answers that build conversation,” she said.
If they write you walls of text without asking anything back, it doesn’t indicate that they’re interested in knowing who you are. Ury has a term for these people: “ZQ,” or “zero questions.” ZQs indicate a lack of genuine curiosity to learn more about you, she said.
They’re ‘bad’ at texting, but don’t connect in other ways
Not everyone loves texting a lot — plenty of people prefer calls or simply can’t be on their phones during the work day.
Ury said that if they’re interested, they should be communicating with you about how they want to stay in touch. If they’re offline during the workday, they should be transparent about that — and find other ways to share that they’re thinking of you, such sending voice notes, memes, or photos of their day.
But if they don’t make an effort to be clear about liking you, it comes off like they’re not that interested in you.
It’s why Ury emphasizes meeting in real life quickly if you hit it off with someone: digital body language isn’t a science, and sometimes it’s worth having conversations around communication differences.
Plus, the better way to confirm if someone likes you is to meet them in person.
“You need to get to the date as soon as possible,” she said. “You don’t know if somebody’s in-person vibes will match their digital body language.”
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