REVEALED: Unmatched using dating apps | Vintage Vibes

As dating coach Hayley Quinn explained to Bored Panda for our publication on the best Tinder profiles, you can never know if you will hit it off with someone you matched on a dating app because most will have people seeking a mix of relationship styles.

"If you are looking for something casual, Feeld app specializes in offering explicitly casual connections: as you may imagine profiles are more 'visual'. On the other hand, a platform like Match has a huge amount of criteria you can search for online, making it better adapted to people seeking meaningful connections. The trick here is to really identify what relationship you're seeking, then clearly communicate that through your profile and opening messages," Quinn explained.

The dating coach thinks that being unique is very important in online dating. "With so much choice it's too easy for people to become banner blind and not realize what an amazing option you are," she said. "In terms of quick fixes make sure your profile is a cliche-free zone ('looking for my partner in crime...') and that you always state things specifically rather than generally."

"For example, saying, 'I like to travel,' is nowhere near as attention-grabbing as, 'already googling my first post lockdown trip to Thailand. (Sidenote: do you like Thai food?)' Finally, ensure you write your profiles in a way that's conversational and informal: a fun hack to help you with this is to dictate your profile first, to get more of your personality into it."

With so many dating websites and apps out there, it has become normal to use online dating to meet someone—there are about 40 million Americans who do so.

And even though eHarmony claims that 27% of young adults are using online dating sites (which is up 10% from 2013), new findings suggest it's neither better nor worse than getting to know a person in real life. At least in terms of success rate.

One study, published in the journal Psychological Science, claims it's actually impossible to figure out whether or not people who have the same values and character traits will fall in love. "Attraction for a particular person may be difficult or impossible to predict before two people have actually met," Samantha Joel, a University of Utah psychology professor and lead author, said in a press release.

"A relationship is more than the sum of its parts. There is a shared experience that happens when you meet someone that can’t be predicted beforehand," Joel explained.

The paper, which used speed-dating data, confirmed what online dating skeptics have been saying for years: computer-based algorithms can't predict if two people will feel that indescribable connection, that special something. Yes, computers might be able to predict how much someone would desire someone else, or how much they would have in common, but they probably can't pinpoint exactly what makes two people fall in love (yet).

After they ran the numbers, the researchers were surprised to discover that they were unable to predict even one couple that was a match. "We found we cannot anticipate how much individuals will uniquely desire each other in a speed-dating context with any meaningful level of accuracy," Joel explained.

"I thought that out of more than 100 predictors, we would be able to predict at least some portion of the variance. I didn't expect we would find zero."

Ultimately, it all boils down to trial and error.

"In the world of online dating, there's going to be some people who are excited to meet someone tomorrow, others that are just dipping in and out of the app when they're watching Netflix!" Quinn said. "By asking someone for a date, or a phone number, sooner rather than later you may do a good job of filtering out people who aren't on the same page as you."