When was the last time you matched with someone? You haven’t got any replies to any of your messages recently? You might think that you just suck at online dating, but if you are still able to log in and swipe profiles then you might actually be shadowbanned.
It might be the worst thing that can happen to you on Tinder as we will explain later. But don’t worry, we are here for you and we are going to help you in this post.
In this blog post, we are going to explain everything you need to know about Tinder Shadow ban, what is it exactly, what are the signs you need to see to be sure that you are indeed shadowbanned. We will also talk about if you can do anything to remove the ban, and how you can avoid it to happen again.
What is a Tinder Shadowban?
Tinder Shadowban is a type of soft ban from Tinder that will not completely ban your account so you are still able to log in to Tinder and swipe profiles and even see your previous messages you have sent a received.
However, you are hidden from other profiles swiping deck so your profile is never swiped right, so you can’t get any matches. If you send messages they are not shown to the profile you sent the message to.
You can try Boost and Super Boost, pay a bunch of money, buy thousands of Super Likes, but they won’t move the needle. Tinder might still give some, a very minimal number of matches, so you keep spending money, but the effectiveness of your efforts is close to zero.
As I said, this is the worst that can happen to you, as you are not hard banned from Tinder, you can still log in, you are swiping like crazy, purchasing premium features and subscriptions so you can get more matches, you are making a change in your bio, take better photos, etc. And still, nothing happens.
Am I Shadowbanned? – Top 4 Signs
Before fixing the shadowban issue, it is important to make sure that you are indeed shadowbanned. It is also possible that if you live in a not so crowded area that you just simply ran out of a lot of profiles.
So, to make sure that you are shadowbanned, answer the following these questions:
- Would you get a lot of matches previously then unexpectedly the number of matches dropped to almost zero?
- You have sent a high number of messages recently and you didn’t get any replies to them?
- In the Discovery screen (where you can swipe profiles), you see the following message instead of swipeable profiles: “Something went wrong. Please try again later.”
- Tinder won’t explicitly tell you that you are shadowbanned so this makes it more difficult to identify shadowban. Although there is one sign that is likely to refer to the shadowban.
As you most likely know you can take a break from Tinder by setting the toggle OFF in the Settings area of Tinder: “Show me on Tinder”.
If this Setting is on, but you can still see the message: “You won’t show up in the card stack but can still message your existing matches.”, it also shows that you are most likely shadowbanned from Tinder:
If you have answered these questions more times with a “Yes” than with a “No” then it is very likely that you have been shadowbanned.
If you are still getting some new matches and you can see that you get replies to messages then you can be sure that it is not a shadowban, you are just simply not favored by the algorithm and by other profiles. In this case, you have to put time and resources into developing your bio and your messaging skills and get new profile pictures.
Why did I Tinder shadow ban my profile?
There are two types of reasons why your profile might get shadowbanned.
Tinder Reset in the wrong way
The first one is related to deleting your account and restart it right after in order to get a newbie boost (the process that is referred to sometimes as Tinder reset).
The problem with this that this used to be an accepted behavior from Tinder.
However, as more people took advantage of account reset, which was the best way to get a natural boost for your account without paying a dime, Tinder started to not like this tactic.
Let’s not forget that Tinder has a feature for getting more profile visibility called Boost and Super Boost, both of them costing a nice amount of money. And even Boost and Super Boost boosting effects cannot be compared to the natural boost of a new account gets.
So as Tinder realized that the account reset becomes a common thing and that they lose money with not doing anything against it, from one point on they made it simply a policy that you can’t delete and just restart an account. (you have to wait at least 3 months to do so)
But obviously they didn’t make a big marketing campaign to let their users know that this does no longer work. So most people tried to reset their account the same old way that led to a bunch of Tinder account shadowbanned.
Being reported multiple times
The other reasons why you got shadowbanned by Tinder are related to general violations of Tinder Terms of Service and Community Guidelines.
It means that you were reported – most of the time more than one – so Tinder decided to ban you. There is a lot of reasons why someone might have reported you, you can also read Tinder’s full Community Guidelines here. To highlight the most frequent ones, you should avoid any behavior related to these violations:
- offensive messages
- nude or any inappropriate pictures
- asking for money for any reason
- automating parts of Tinder, etc
The only good thing about being reported by another user, that at least Tinder sends you a notification that someone reported you. At least you can be more certain that you got shadowbanned by Tinder if you are getting the signs that you might be soft banned.
If you want to avoid getting banned or shadowbanned then if you are getting this notification, you should think about why you would get reported and stop that whatever it is that you are doing. Read our blog post on how to not get reported.
How to remove or fix the Tinder Shadowban?
As far as we know there is no easy way to remove or lift a shadow ban from your Tinder account.
If you are 100% sure that you didn’t make any violations against Tinder’s Community Guidelines, you have never been reported on the platform, and you didn’t try to reset your account then you can try to contact Tinder Support with your issue.
We would say that the chance is really small that Tinder will lift the shadowban, in most cases they won’t even tell you why they shadow banned your profile if they reply you back.
If you think that you really have been shadowbanned, then your only option that really works is to reset your account. This means you have to delete the current one that has been shadowbanned by Tinder and make a new one.
We have a separate blog post, where we will show you the whole step by step process, as it is not as easy as used to be. You have to make sure that Tinder cannot connect your new account to the one it has just shadowbanned. If it manages to do so, your new profile will be shadowbanned again.
How to Avoid a Tinder Shadowban?
As you can see Tinder shadowban is not easy to fix, as resetting a Tinder account is quite a cumbersome process in this year, so you should be better cautious if you don’t want to make an account reset.
If you reset your account, don’t just make a simple reset, make sure that Tinder cannot connect your new account to the one it is shadowbanned, because if you leave traces, then your doomed: shadowbanned again.
The other main advice is to play by the rules that Tinder created on their platform, even if you don’t agree with them. Read their community guidelines, so you know what you should not do if you don’t want to be reported.
The last piece of advice is to get your match off of Tinder. As soon as you send some messages back and forth, get her number or social profiles and continue the conversation elsewhere where you cannot get reported for anything.
If things don’t go the way you would like to do, you can also delete the match from your match list. It is the best way to make sure that nobody reports you on Tinder.
Why does Tinder shadowban profiles?
As Tinder has never released anything officially about the shadowban being a real thing they do, of course they have never given any reason why they are only shadowbanning people and not hard banning them.
The most likely reason is just one word: money.
If you hard ban an account from Tinder then they can no longer log in to the app, or swipe profiles. If they can still see previous matches and their matches, they can still swipe profiles (which is one of the most enjoyable thing to do on Tinder), they will most likely delete the app later.
And as a lot of users are paying customers, these shadowbanned accounts will keep paying their Gold or Plus subscriptions fees for a longer time.
This shadow ban phenomenon shows also that just because you are a paying customer, you can get just as easily banned as any other profile. It is a better decision from Tinder’s point of view to ban profiles who are doing nasty things, as a better general user experience will mean more users will stay on Tinder, which means more money for Tinder in the long term.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a Tinder Shadowban?
What are the main reasons for a shadowban?
Can you get matches during a Shadowban?
How long does a Tinder shadowban last?
How to remove a Tinder shadowban?
What are the signs of a Tinder shadowban?
There are several signs that indicate you might be shadowbanned on Tinder. These include a sudden drop in matches, lack of replies to messages, the appearance of error messages when swiping, and still being able to send messages to existing matches while not appearing in the swiping deck.
What actions can cause a Tinder shadowban?
One reason for a shadowban is attempting to reset your account within 3 months of deleting it. Other reasons include violating Tinder’s community guidelines, such as sending offensive messages, sharing inappropriate photos, or automating parts of the app.
How can you remove a Tinder shadowban?
There is no easy way to remove a Tinder shadowban. The best option is to delete your account and create a new one, making sure to avoid the actions that caused the shadowban in the first place.
Can you still get matches during a Tinder shadowban?
In most cases, you will not receive any new matches during a Tinder shadowban. However, there may be rare exceptions, and if you are still receiving matches but not enough, it’s likely that you are not shadowbanned but simply need to improve your profile or consider purchasing Boost or Super Boost.
Why does Tinder shadowban profiles?
Tinder likely shadowbans profiles as a way to discourage behavior that violates its community guidelines while keeping users as paying customers. By shadowbanning, rather than hard banning, profiles can still use the app and potentially continue paying for subscriptions while their visibility is limited.
