Article index
All 125 articles on Talk Before You Swipe, by section.
Apps & Profiles
Section page →- Dating apps optimise for engagement, not for you leavingAug 11, 2026
- A profile is an invitation to a conversation, not a CVAug 9, 2026
- Checking a stranger is real takes about five minutesJul 3, 2026
- Opening messages that get answered have one thing in commonJun 27, 2026
- New accounts get a visibility boost, and then it stopsJun 24, 2026
- Your first photo is doing most of the workJun 22, 2026
- Dating app burnout is a dosage problemJun 18, 2026
- The distance radius decides more than your stated preferencesJun 16, 2026
- Swiping right on everything makes your feed worseJun 10, 2026
- Niche apps trade volume for contextJun 8, 2026
- What a dating app knows about you, and where it goesJun 4, 2026
- Romance scams follow a script, and the script is shortJun 2, 2026
- Talking to several people at once is normal and needs a ruleMay 29, 2026
- Writing a bio when you are convinced you are boringDec 1, 2025
- A video call before meeting answers what photos cannotNov 25, 2025
- Filters shrink the pool faster than anybody expectsNov 23, 2025
- Unmatch, block and report are three different buttonsNov 18, 2025
- Prompts are a format, and most answers ignore the formatNov 16, 2025
- A photo set works as a sequence, not a galleryNov 13, 2025
- Reviving a conversation that died three weeks agoNov 8, 2025
- Putting your situation on a profile instead of explaining it laterNov 5, 2025
First Dates
Section page →- Move to meeting sooner than feels comfortableAug 5, 2026
- Who pays, and how to make it a non-eventJul 31, 2026
- Plan a first date so that leaving is easyMay 24, 2026
- Nerves and attraction produce the same signals in the bodyMay 22, 2026
- Alcohol changes what a first date can tell youMay 18, 2026
- The venue does half the work of the conversationMay 16, 2026
- Questions that get past the interview scriptMay 12, 2026
- No spark and nothing wrong: how to decide about a second dateMay 9, 2026
- Cancelled, rescheduled or stood up are three different thingsMay 5, 2026
- How much to tell somebody on a first dateMay 3, 2026
- The end of a first date is the part people fumbleApr 27, 2026
- First dates when you are anxious have controllable partsApr 25, 2026
- Going on a first date after years out of itApr 22, 2026
- Daytime dates show you things a bar cannotNov 3, 2025
- What to wear is a signalling decision, not a style contestOct 31, 2025
- Silence on a first date is not the emergency it feels likeOct 27, 2025
- Activity dates buy you something to talk aboutOct 23, 2025
- The day after a first date has a short useful windowOct 19, 2025
- When they are nothing like their messagesOct 15, 2025
- Telling one person where you are going takes two minutesOct 14, 2025
- How somebody treats staff is information you get for freeOct 9, 2025
Communication
Section page →- The specific sentences that make hard conversations easierJul 29, 2026
- Texting pace is a compatibility question, not a testJul 25, 2026
- Listening is a set of behaviours, not an attitudeApr 17, 2026
- Apologies that work have four partsApr 15, 2026
- Small bids for attention are most of the relationshipApr 12, 2026
- Stonewalling is not a cooling-off periodApr 7, 2026
- Asking for reassurance directly beats testing for itApr 4, 2026
- One pursues, one withdraws, and both think they are helpingApr 2, 2026
- Assuming they already know is the most expensive habitMar 28, 2026
- Talking about sex without it turning into a performance reviewMar 26, 2026
- Jealousy is information about you, not an instructionMar 23, 2026
- Contempt is the one that predicts an endingMar 18, 2026
- Tone is the one thing text cannot carryOct 6, 2025
- Repair matters more than the argument didOct 3, 2025
- Voice notes, calls and text do three different jobsSep 30, 2025
- Timing a hard conversation is half of how it goesSep 27, 2025
- A complaint and a criticism are different sentencesSep 22, 2025
- Arguing by text makes small things permanentSep 18, 2025
- Venting and asking for a solution need different answersSep 16, 2025
- Teasing works until somebody has to explain it was a jokeSep 12, 2025
- How much of your history a new partner actually needsSep 10, 2025
Boundaries
Section page →- Boundaries are things you do, not requests you makeJul 23, 2026
- Consent is a conversation, and it continuesJul 19, 2026
- Love bombing is a pace problem before it is anything elseMar 16, 2026
- Fear and control are a different situation from conflictMar 12, 2026
- Phones, passwords and the myth of nothing to hideMar 8, 2026
- Intimate images: consent does not end at the send buttonMar 4, 2026
- Sexual health conversations are logistics, not accusationsMar 2, 2026
- Saying no to sex inside a relationshipFeb 26, 2026
- Money boundaries in early datingFeb 24, 2026
- The ex who is still in the group chatFeb 18, 2026
- When family disapprove of who you are datingFeb 15, 2026
- Guilt is not evidence that you did the wrong thingFeb 12, 2026
- Location sharing is convenient until it is notFeb 8, 2026
- How much of your week a new relationship getsSep 6, 2025
- Deciding who gets to know you are seeing somebodySep 3, 2025
- Consent and capacity when drink is involvedAug 31, 2025
- Being posted and tagged without being askedAug 25, 2025
- When somebody keeps asking after you have said noAug 24, 2025
- Money that arrives with conditions attachedAug 19, 2025
- Non-negotiables work better written down earlyAug 15, 2025
- Physical affection has settings that never get discussedAug 13, 2025
Long-term
Section page →- Moving in together is a logistics project people treat as a milestoneJul 16, 2026
- Long-distance works or fails on a plan, not on feelingsJul 12, 2026
- The finances couples avoid discussing until they cannotFeb 6, 2026
- Meeting the family is a loyalty test more than an approval testFeb 2, 2026
- Wanting children is a compatibility question, not a negotiationJan 31, 2026
- The mental load is the half of the housework nobody countsJan 26, 2026
- Desire changes shape in a long relationshipJan 24, 2026
- Marriage changes your legal position more than your relationshipJan 19, 2026
- Whose career moves, and deciding it before it happensJan 17, 2026
- Couples therapy is maintenance, not a last resortJan 13, 2026
- Friendships outside a relationship are structuralJan 8, 2026
- Sliding into a life nobody actually decided onJan 7, 2026
- Travelling together tells you things a year of dinners will notAug 8, 2025
- Sleep is the compatibility problem couples are embarrassed to raiseAug 6, 2025
- Whose family gets which holidayAug 4, 2025
- Getting a pet together is a decade-long joint decisionJul 30, 2025
- Whose name is on the lease changes everything laterJul 27, 2025
- Boredom in a long relationship is not a verdictJul 22, 2025
- Gifts and anniversaries run on two different scriptsJul 20, 2025
- When one of you gets ill, the roles changeJul 16, 2025
- Doing things separately without it meaning somethingJul 12, 2025
Endings
Section page →- Ending it clearly is kinder than ending it gentlyJul 9, 2026
- The months after a breakup have a shapeJul 6, 2026
- Being left when you did not see it comingJan 3, 2026
- Closure is something you build, not something you are givenDec 29, 2025
- Breadcrumbing and benching are decisions disguised as indecisionDec 28, 2025
- Untangling a shared life: the list nobody makesDec 23, 2025
- Getting back together works under specific conditionsDec 19, 2025
- Co-parenting after a breakup starts with a scheduleDec 18, 2025
- Blocking is a tool, not a statementDec 12, 2025
- Leaving a relationship where you are afraidDec 10, 2025
- Telling everyone else it is overDec 7, 2025
- Grieving something that was never officially a relationshipDec 3, 2025
- Breaking up while you still share a leaseJul 11, 2025
- Mutual friends do not divide evenlyJul 6, 2025
- Feeds, archives and the digital residue of an exJul 2, 2025
- Dating again, and why "how soon" is the wrong questionJul 1, 2025
- Separating when the law is involvedJun 25, 2025
- Staying friends is a request that needs a timelineJun 23, 2025
- Ghosting is an ending delivered by absenceJun 20, 2025
- The dates in the calendar that ambush youJun 16, 2025