The conventional wisdom on Madison Avenue has long held that love stories should begin at the end — the moment of triumph, the couple gazing into each other's eyes, the implication that the product in question made it all possible. Hinge, the dating application owned by Match Group, has decided that the interesting part happens somewhat earlier.
For the third consecutive year, the app is publishing short fiction based on the real experiences of its users, a marketing strategy that might be described as aggressively literary. The latest installment, titled "Can't Believe We Met on Hinge," is available as audiobooks on Spotify and Libby, extending what had been a text-only enterprise on the newsletter platform Substack.
"We launched the first chapter of 'No Ordinary Love' in 2024 and it encouraged daters to challenge the 'icks' and pressure for perfection at the start of a relationship," said Tamika Young, the chief marketing and communications officer at Hinge. (One suspects the word "icks" has appeared in fewer New York Times articles than it has in dating app focus groups.)
The production values have escalated accordingly. Hinge partnered with Dazed Studio for medieval-inspired illustrations by Lu Walstad, a New York tattoo artist, and commissioned original harpsichord compositions by Jackson Kinder. The real couples whose stories inspired the fiction appear in video trailers directed by David Brandon Geeting.
Ms. Young said the theme this year centers on "chalant" — a term meaning the opposite of nonchalance — which she said had seen a 217 percent increase in search interest in 2025. The stories explore what she called "the honest emotions that often come before meaningful connection — skepticism, frustration, cautious optimism and the temptation to give up altogether."
The campaign will be promoted through outdoor advertising in New York and London, which is to say, in the traditional places where dating apps have always advertised. The fiction, however, will remain free.
Original story published in The Drum: "Why Hinge is turning its love stories into audiobooks | The Drum"