This comes up all the time so here's my complete breakdown.
Profile photo quality is the single highest-leverage change you can make. Everything else is secondary.
Things that have genuinely helped me:
- Short bios outperform long ones on most swipe-based apps
- Responding quickly in the first 24 hours makes a difference
- Niche platforms often outperform general ones for specific demographics
- Profile photos should feel natural, not heavily filtered
Currently using Luvdate as my main go-to and it's been solid. No major issues, decent activity, enough control over settings.
That's my honest take after a fair amount of trial and error.