But when you do find a match, and love is in the air, you might feel the need to delete your Tinder profile. You have eyes for one person right now, but you also don’t want to put your eggs in one basket. Let’s say you get a match and go on a few dates. What happens if it doesn’t work out? You could come back to Tinder but you just deleted your account. Rather than go through the trouble deleting your Tinder profile, you can always hide it. The question is: what happens when you hide your Tinder profile?
What Happens When You Hide Your Tinder Profile?
Here’s how Tinder works: you are provided with possible matches based on location and the radius in which Tinder searches. If the radius is 20km, then Tinder searches 20km in all directions of your current location. That means it can change if you move to another location. Once your location is known, Tinder adds you to Discovery, which is how other Tinder users find you. You swipe left or swipe right, and attempt to find companionship. So, what happens when you remove Discovery? Can it be disabled? As a matter of fact, it can. When you disable Discovery, you are hidden from Tinder. This is, as mentioned before, how Tinder brings user profiles into someone’s view. If you disable Discovery, you disable the main function in which Tinder works. What happens then? Well, Tinder basically becomes a glorified messaging app. You can still use Tinder after Discovery is disabled; in fact, if you made any matches—you and one other person mutually swiped right—you are still allowed to message them. Unfortunately, you are no longer a part of the dating soup. Your profile will not appear for people to swipe right on or left, nor are you able to do the same for others. Until Discovery is reenabled, your profile is hidden from Tinder.
If I Hide My Profile on Tinder Who Can See It
When you pause your Tinder account, it’s taken off Tinder’s database which means that the profile no longer exists and no one can see it. This is an indication to let them know that you’ve deactivated your Tinder account. Another thing that they’re seeing is your profile picture. Sometimes, soon after you’ve deactivated your Tinder account, your pictures might still show to others as well as your account. But this doesn’t last very long. If someone has an open conversation with you, your profile will disappear and they won’t be able to see it.
If I Swipe Right on Tinder Then Hide My Profile
If you swipe right then turn off discovery to hide your profile, then the people that you’ve swiped right on won’t be able to see your profile after a while. If they have the premium version of Tinder and they’re able to see who liked them, then your profile will disappear from the likes section and they won’t be able to match with you.
How to Turn Discovery Off
When the opportunity arrives and hiding your Tinder profile is a must, how do you do it? Thankfully, it’s a really easy feature to implement. Here’s how:
- Start by launching Tinder on your phone. If you aren’t already, sign in with your account.
- Visit your profile page and tap on your profile picture.
- Now choose Settings—the gear icon.
- Scroll down until you see Discovery. Go ahead and turn it off.
Can You ‘Pause’ Your Account?
Yes and no. Disabling Discovery in your Settings, and the way it works, is one form of ‘pausing’ your account. However, it isn’t implemented in a way that, say, eHarmony has. With eHarmony, your profile basically goes into hibernation. Tinder chose for more of a pseudo-pause. As mentioned before, you can still talk to those you’ve matched with, but you also won’t be able to make new ones. But if you wanted to go further than that, like eHarmony does, there isn’t an option available short of deleting your account entirely. It would be nice to have that option available, rather than disabling Discovery. Sometimes people want to pull away from dating, but don’t necessarily want to delete their account, nor do they want to miss out on potential matches based on their carefully built criteria. Turning Discovery off doesn’t quite scratch that itch.
Bottom Line
In conclusion, hiding your profile from Tinder merely removes you from the dating function. No one will see your profile in their stack of cards anymore, nor will you be able to swipe right or swipe left on other Tinder profiles. With that said, you’ll still be able to interact with Tinder’s platform. You can still message matches you’ve made previously and conversations that are still open. On top of that, you do not lose the ability to view someone’s profile, and vice versa. That means others can search yours, too, but only those that have matched with you. However, if hiding your Tinder profile isn’t what you thought it would be, then perhaps deleting it is something you’re looking for. Sure, Discovery mode hides your profile, but it doesn’t ‘pause’ it like, say, eHarmony.
