How to Get Unbanned on Tinder, Bumble & Hinge?

If your dating app suddenly feels dead, this is for you. And no, it’s not always because your profile sucks.

If you’re specifically trying to figure out how to get unbanned on Tinder, or whether you’re dealing with a shadowban on Tinder, Bumble, or Hinge, you’re in the right place.

Over the last few years, dating apps have quietly changed how bans and shadowbans work. Most guys don’t even realize it’s happening. They just assume the app “stopped working.”

In this guide, I’ll break down how bans actually work now on Tinder, Bumble, and Hinge, how to tell if it’s happening to you, and what you can realistically do about it.

The Uncomfortable Truth About Dating App Bans

Here’s the uncomfortable truth: You can get banned or shadowbanned on any dating app at any time, often with zero explanation.

Sometimes it’s reports. Sometimes it’s automated systems. Sometimes it’s behavior that looks “suspicious” to the algorithm, even if you didn’t do anything crazy. That doesn’t mean you’re screwed forever.

There are ways to substantially reduce your ban risk, which we will discuss later in the guide, and even if you’re already banned, there are workarounds.

Tinder Bans Explained

Tinder has two types of bans that guys usually run into.

Tinder Hard Ban – This one is obvious. You get logged out. You try to log back in. Either Tinder tells you directly that you’re banned, or you can’t log in at all. If that happens, your account is done.

Tinder Shadowban – This is the sneaky one. With a Tinder shadowban:

-Your account looks normal
-You can still swipe
-If you’re paying for Gold or Platinum, you will continue to get likes

But nothing converts. No matter how much you swipe, you don’t get any new matches. And every time you try to swipe right on a girl who already liked you, you’re greeted with an error (Note: if you get an error only some of the time, it’s just a glitch and you need to restart the app)

Another sneaking thing that happens is when you message a girl you have already been talking to, it looks like the message went through, but a day later you see no history of it.

How to Tell If You’re Banned or Shadowbanned on Tinder

Gold/Platinum users: Errors every time you try to match a girl who liked you = shadowban

Free users: Messages disappear the next day = shadowban

Logged out + can’t log back in = hard ban

How to Get Around a Tinder Ban or Shadowban

Whether it’s a hard ban or a shadowban, the fix is the same: you need to start fresh. (Appeals almost never work.) You need:

1) A new device – you can get a burner phone for $30 on Amazon or eBay

2) A new phone number – Google Voice is the easiest, but if your country doesn’t have it, I recommend an app called “Hushed”. They give you a new line for $5 a month

3) Other extra safety tips – Slightly change your date of birth. You don’t need new photos, but cropping them by ~1% can help. And if it was a shadowban, delete your account and wait ~24 hours before recreating it

That’s usually enough to get back on Tinder

Bumble Bans Explained

Bumble also has the same two types of bans. The hardban works exactly the same, but the bumble shadow ban is a bit more chill:

You’ll usually notice that likes drop suddenly. Matches come in slower, and boosts perform badly. The big difference, though, is that matches still work and messaging still works normally. You don’t see the same error loops or blocked messages you get on Tinder.

How to Get Around a Bumble Ban or Shadowban

The instructions for the hard ban are exactly the same as they are for Tinder. New device, new number, etc

However, a shadowban is different. Because a lot of the time, you can get yourself “unshadowbanned”  if you play your cards right.

If you suspect Bumble has throttled your reach, don’t immediately reset everything. Instead, the first thing to do is normalize your behavior. For a week or two, stop mass swiping, stop hopping locations, and stop constantly editing your profile.

Use the app in short sessions, swipe less, and let matches come naturally. After that, make one clean profile improvement, usually get better photos, and a more neutral bio.

On Bumble, visibility often restores on its own once your behavior looks “normal” again. Just give it a few weeks.

Hinge Bans Explained

Hinge is the strictest app by far. If you’re banned, they usually tell you directly. And they don’t really do shadowbans. Instead, they slowly bury your profile.

Hinge tracks:

1) Photo performance
2) Response rates
3) Mass low-effort copy & paste openers
4) Unanswered matches

If your profile performs poorly, they simply show it less. On bumble your matches will suddenly drop off. On Hinge, it’ll be a slower, more gradual thing.

How to get around a Hinge “shadowban”

Photos matter more than anything else on Hinge. If your results suck:

• Upgrade your photos (by far the biggest thing)
• Respond to matches
• Unmatch instead of not responding

However, if you have a hard ban, things become a lot more difficult. Hinge is by far the hardest app to recover.

In addition to the new number and new phone, you will very likely need new photos (and no cropping them by 1% wont work here). But even if you do everything right, there is a high probability you can get rebanned shortly after making the new account

Realistic odds:

Tinder / Bumble: 80–90%

Hinge: ~50%

How to Minimize Ban Risk Across All Apps

Two rules matter more than anything else.

First, don’t look automated. Constant resets, identical messages sent to everyone, endless right-swiping, or erratic behavior all raise flags. It’s fine to reuse openers that work, just don’t look robotic. This, btw, is where FireTexts comes in, just upload photos of the girl and get a custom-tailored opener. (They work better also)

Second, keep it chill. Flirting is fine, but anger, insults, or sudden sexual jumps are what get people reported. Especially on Hinge, it’s better to save heavier sexualization for text. And if you have a bad date or you suspect the girl is pissed off at you, immediately delete her as a match so she can’t report you 

These small things matter more than you think.

Dating App Ban FAQs

1) Can Tinder shadowban you without telling you?
Yes. That’s exactly how shadowbans work.

2) Do dating app appeals work?
Almost never.

3) Can you get banned again after resetting?
Yes — especially on Hinge if you reuse photos.

3) Is a new phone enough to get unbanned?
No. You need a new phone and a new number a minimum

4) Which app is the strictest?
Hinge, by far.

Final Thoughts

Dating app bans are super annoying, but once you understand how Tinder, Bumble, and Hinge actually work, you can mitigate your risk

And once you’re back on or starting fresh, the goal is simple: don’t give the apps a reason to flag you again.

One of the easiest ways guys screw this up is through bad texting, sending the same opener to everyone, escalating too fast, or getting emotional when a conversation goes sideways.

If you want help avoiding that, FireTexts was built specifically for this. It gives you context-aware text suggestions that take all the guess work out of messaging girls. And you can use our new opener feature to generate custom lines based on the girls photos

Download & Try For Free: