Online dating: Best and worst opening lines

One of the hardest parts of online dating is coming up with things to say to strangers. Photo / iStock

Before you send a generic "Hey, what's up?" try to think of something more unique.

We learned that from Aziz Ansari months ago, but in case you were still starting your chats that way, there's even more evidence as to why you should avoid it. According to a recent study by Hinge, an online dating app that relies heavily on matching you with the friends of your Facebook friends, specific prompts are more likely to increase your response rate.

For a month, Hinge fed users sample opening lines that they could copy with one click and then edit before sending to a match.

"About 22 percent of Hinge's user base received a mix of sample opening lines they could use," says Karen Fein, Hinge's vice president of marketing.

Hinge's in-house copy writers and data science and product team wrote the sample messages, Fein said; in response, Hinge measured whether these opening lines got responses and how quickly, but the app didn't study the content of those responses.

Results varied by gender, age and location. Men, for example, were 98 percent more likely to respond when a match sent "an assertive match," such as an invitation to drinks; while women are 40 percent more likely to respond to messages about food. (In person, women are more likely to be interested in men on a full stomach).

Here are some tips from the report:

Message men within six hours

"If you don't message a guy within 6 hours, the likelihood he'll respond drops by 25 percent," the report found.

Within that same timeframe, women's response rates dropped just 5 percent.

Consider the age bracket

Daters aged 18 to 23...
Were more likely to write back when fed conversation starters Hinge deemed "novel" "You're having your portrait painted - what's your backdrop?").

Daters aged 24 to 28...
Preferred questions relating to lifestyle or activities, such as: "Better adventure: rock climbing or scuba diving?"

Daters ages 29 to 34...
Responded well to personal questions ("two truths and a lie; ready, set go!").

Daters over 35...
Did well with pop culture prompts ("Kay Perry or Taylor Swift?").

When examining certain cities, Hinge found that San Francisco is obsessed with youth.
Conversation starters such as "What movie scared you the most when you were little?" and "What was the first CD you ever bought yourself?" did much better there than elsewhere.

New York city daters wanted to escape reality (popular questions there were "How was your 2004?" and "Choose: adult treehouse or the ability to talk to animals?"); and 1990s references did well in Chicago.

If you're going to be straightforward, you might have better luck with that in Boston - "Hey, what's up?" did well there, as did "Please confirm you're not one of those people who claps when the plane lands."

And in Washington, D.C., daters liked talking about cheese. "Do you string your string cheese or bite it?"

But here's the question: Isn't it a turn-off when an opening line was obviously written by someone else? Try coming up with some great ones, all on your own.

Have your say: What's the best or worst pick-up line you've heard?