Advice Rance's Guide to HelloTalk

[Rance]

Is this worth it for the algo/farming followers? I it set as CN/JP/Vietnamese. I know fuck all Spanish

It's 1000% worth it. At least in the beginning when you need to get your followers up, and get over the 100-ish likes per Moment threshold to make your profile look impressive.

Right now I'm set to:
English (native) ---> Chinese (elementary) + Japanese (intermediate) + Spanish (beginner)

Which helps a lot with the algo, but doesn't look so good, it looks confusing. Therefore around when I move to China I'll change it to:
English (native) + Japanese (intermediate) ---> Chinese (elementary)

 

[Rance]

I’m noticing 1 problem using Hellotalk, at least for Chinese girls… the vast majority of profiles are whack
Only a very small fraction of them has:

• A profile picture that isn’t blatantly some celebrity or whatever; Chinese people use regular-looking non-famous people as their PFP if it’s aesthetic lol
• has photos in their Moments so you can verify their profile picture is even them, let alone not filtermaxxed to oblivion. And even then they might have pictures of some random in their Moments
• is actually 6/10+ and isn’t using uncanny alien filters (not that they actually make them any more attractive the majority of the time)
• and of course, is actually in your city. Some kind of “Japan ≈ Tokyo” thing probably makes it a lot more streamlined when using it for Japanese, I imagine

Looks like IRL game is the only consistent solution… only real 中文的人 china-boos will survive

... all that being said though, obviously that tells you how easy it is to set yourself apart because it's probably a lot more of the same for guys. AKA a lot of the stuff that was discussed in OP

I'm immediately realizing the drawback of how BIG China is. Only one of the girls I've messaged with so far is in Hangzhou. And only a handful are elsewhere in the Shanghai-Nanjing-Ningbo triangle. Japan was easy because a solid number of girls were in Tokyo, maybe as much as a third of them.

This brings a subtle social effect. When I was in Tokyo, I'd use the "people near me" feature to find other girls in Tokyo and message them. But because Tokyo is such a massive city and many users were there, there was the plausible deniability of messaging them for other reasons, but they just happened to live nearby. When I message girls in Hangzhou, I feel like they know right away that I'm messaging them because they live in Hangzhou, as it's too unlikely to be sheer coincidence. Probably works against me.

 

[Orientalist]

This brings a subtle social effect. When I was in Tokyo, I'd use the "people near me" feature to find other girls in Tokyo and message them. But because Tokyo is such a massive city and many users were there, there was the plausible deniability of messaging them for other reasons, but they just happened to live nearby. When I message girls in Hangzhou, I feel like they know right away that I'm messaging them because they live in Hangzhou, as it's too unlikely to be sheer coincidence. Probably works against me.

Definitely a good point, but there's still 11 million other people in the city.
I don't even know if the algorithm actually does this - but - even if you don't use the 'nearby' feature I imagine you have plausible deniability that the 'Connect' tab still probably shows you people nearby anyways.

 

[geneblackman]

I still can't figure out the algorithm. Sometimes I get a lot of first messages and profile views then other times it's dry. Same on Tandem.

My moments are still trash too. I might have to try subtle ragebaiting

 

[Frank Underwood]

I still can't figure out the algorithm. Sometimes I get a lot of first messages and profile views then other times it's dry. Same on Tandem.

My moments are still trash too. I might have to try subtle ragebaiting

the more you reply to people, the more messages you get.

ht and tandem are probably the easiest “dating” apps i’ve used. minutes after joining i started to get messages from south american, russian, and asian women about how they find me hot etc. but i ended up deleting it as sexting is not so fun.

 

[geneblackman]

the more you reply to people, the more messages you get.

ht and tandem are probably the easiest “dating” apps i’ve used. minutes after joining i started to get messages from south american, russian, and asian women about how they find me hot etc. but i ended up deleting it as sexting is not so fun.

You're right. I've gotten those waves before where I get tons of first messages but I think currently either my visibility is low or I frauded my new picture too well.

When I send messages I get a very good reply rate at least. Not that hard to do when the competition is a bunch of jeets, soys and passportbros I guess.

Did you sext on whatsapp or something?

 

[Frank Underwood]

You're right. I've gotten those waves before where I get tons of first messages but I think currently either my visibility is low or I frauded my new picture too well.

When I send messages I get a very good reply rate at least. Not that hard to do when the competition is a bunch of jeets, soys and passportbros I guess.

Did you sext on whatsapp or something?

mostly on whatsapp but most russian girls preferred telegram so I had to create an account there as well. but it's pretty meaningless if you're not actively geomaxxing tbh. it takes a lot of time and mental effort to keep up with all the girls.

if you're not native english, you can choose english as your native and your actual native language as your target as if you're learning it. this way you can see girls in your country and most of them don't realize that you chose english as your native as you still have your own country's flag on your profile. if you get caught you can just say you're new to the app so you don't know how it works.

 

[geneblackman]

Someone with very high elo sent me a first message that I replied to and right after that I received a ton of first messages from people. Not only that, but the users on the Connect tab finally changed to new ones

I'm starting to think that mass spamming messages decreases your score

 

[Orientalist]

I'm starting to think that mass spamming messages decreases your score

Do you mean being the first to message, or replying to plebs too?

 

[geneblackman]

Do you mean being the first to message, or replying to plebs too?

Being the first to message. I reply to everyone now to boost my score

 

[BiggChungus]

I am 100% certain being first to message reduces your score. I do this and I almost never actually get people sending me messages first.

the algo is weird. maybe they had to do that to combat indians

 

[Rance]

This is probably common knowledge but I am noticing an extreme amount of messages when I am online or have recently sent a message.

I'm noticing it now because Tandem is different. On Tandem, I'd get a somewhat steady number of new messages throughout the day. On HelloTalk, when I open the app and reply to a couple people, I get 5-10 new contacts waving at me within 30 minutes. Then after that, over 24 hours of inactivity, I get literally zero.

You may therefore benefit from checking in sporadically. Instead of having one time where you reply to everything (before bed if you're like me), instead make an effort to open the app a handful of times sprinkled over the day and reply to just a couple messages at a time. It will bump you to the top of whatever list these users are finding me on.

 

[Lebensraum]

This is probably common knowledge but I am noticing an extreme amount of messages when I am online or have recently sent a message.

I'm noticing it now because Tandem is different. On Tandem, I'd get a somewhat steady number of new messages throughout the day. On HelloTalk, when I open the app and reply to a couple people, I get 5-10 new contacts waving at me within 30 minutes. Then after that, over 24 hours of inactivity, I get literally zero.

You may therefore benefit from checking in sporadically. Instead of having one time where you reply to everything (before bed if you're like me), instead make an effort to open the app a handful of times sprinkled over the day and reply to just a couple messages at a time. It will bump you to the top of whatever list these users are finding me on.

Why not just have version on computer open with you being online 24/7 there?

 

[Rance]

Why not just have version on computer open with you being online 24/7 there?

I'm terrified of poking the bear that is the algorithm. I never do any gimmicks because I fear it could trigger some flag on me

But also, logistically, I just can't handle that many messages. I already have way too many to reply to

 

[bateman]

Why not just have version on computer open with you being online 24/7 there?

The web version almost never works.

The best way to get more messages is to message to attractive girls. If they reply back, your ELO will increase and you'll get more messages than you can ever reply to. I turned off notifications because of how many messages I get. I've been using BP forums for three years and have never been rated above 6/10, so I know it's not my looks.

Also, the algorithm creates categories based on the people you interact with and makes that type of person send you more messages. I remember replying to guys thinking I'd get banned otherwise, and I started getting tons of messages from guys. It went back to normal after I started talking only to girls again.

 

[bateman]

Have you guys ever tried the app in Europe? I talked to two Greek girls who are down to visit me in my country, but I'm not sure if my autism will get in the way.

 

[Rance]

Have you guys ever tried the app in Europe? I talked to two Greek girls who are down to visit me in my country, but I'm not sure if my autism will get in the way.

Nah haven't interacted with a single European on HT so it's unknown territory for me. Definitely show those girls around your country though

 

[bateman]

Nah haven't interacted with a single European on HT so it's unknown territory for me. Definitely show those girls around your country though

Based on my experience Southern European girls aren't as difficult as people claim. Their English usually isn't very good though. I had to stop talking to a couple of Italian girls because their English was so bad. Unlike Asian girls they don’t really try to use the translation feature for obvious reasons.

 

[geneblackman]

Based on my experience Southern European girls aren't as difficult as people claim. Their English usually isn't very good, though. I had to stop talking to a couple of Italian girls because their English was so bad. Unlike Asian girls they don’t really try to use the translation feature for obvious reasons.

They're pretty difficult I think and I still can't fully figure them out. I've had the worst response rates from them in general but at the same time the ones I've had conversations with were easily at least HTB if not staceylite.

My best results were with French, German and Russian women. However, every white woman I've talked to on HT has mentioned how they're absolutely swarmed with messages plus the first message matters A LOT unlike with Asians and South Americans.