The busiest day for dating apps is nearly here — how to make sure you’re prepared to find love

The busiest day of the year for online dating is almost here — are you ready?

According to research conducted by Tinder, singles tend to swarm dating apps the first Sunday of each year — Jan. 7 in 2024 — as they begin another trip around the sun with fresh hope and new goals for their love lives.

“The first week of the year and January in general is the busiest for anyone who works with couples and within the space of relationships as well,” Dr. Sara Nasserzadeh, social psychologist and author of the forthcoming book “Love by Design: 6 Ingredients to Build a Lifetime of Love,” told The Post.

“It’s the time right after the holidays, when people have a chance to reflect on what is missing and what they would like to have in the year to come,” she said.

And whether you’re logging on to a dating app for the first time on “Dating Sunday,” or jumping back into the dating pool after a break, your profile likely needs an edit and you’re not alone.

Data from the dating app has shown that profiles with at least five photos are more likely to get more matches. If you want an added boost, verify yourself if the app allows. Being photo-verified could increase matches by 10% more for Tinder users aged 18 to 25.

This Sunday, Tinder users are expected to edit their bios at a rate of 519 per minute, adding 2,263 photos, the matchmaking service told The Post.

Anna Hint, dating expert and marketing lead at Pure, shared these tips for choosing your photos:

• Group pictures can be confusing — which one are you? Keep your pics simple and focused.
• Avoid generic pictures such as gym pictures (no need to be shirtless), car pictures, and fishing pictures.
• Watch out when you are using dogs or cats, especially if they are not yours. Dogfishing (when someone uses a dog to get more likes and matches) is a thing!
• We love seeing faces. A nice picture of you smiling can go a long way.
• Watch the background! A messy background can ruin the best selfie.

Although a picture is worth a thousand words, Tinder data revealed that 15 to 45 words is the optimal word count for a dating profile to express who you are — while still enticing them to reach out and get to know you better.

“Your bio should make people want to start a conversation without giving away too much. It doesn’t need to be a full Wikipedia page. You don’t need to cite sources. Just a few quippy lines will do,” Devyn Simone, Tinder’s resident relationship expert, told The Post.

Once you’ve started the chat, don’t play games. More than two in five (45%) of single 18- to 24-year-olds on Tinder prefer when their potential match is clear about what they want in their dating app.

“Young singles value time and authenticity above everything, so it’s important to leave games and mixed signals out of dating,” Simone said.

People are valuing authenticity so much so that Merriam-Webster deemed “authentic” the word of the year for 2023.

“We [saw] in 2023 a kind of crisis of authenticity,” editor at large Peter Sokolowski told the Associated Press.

“What we realize is that when we question authenticity, we value it even more,” he said.

A good way to check that your profile is an honest representation of your authentic self is to have someone close to you look it over.

“Many times we overanalyze or skip information that could be insightful for potential matches. A friend or close family member can help make sure your page is as authentic to you as possible,” Wenzdai “Wednesday” Tosca, urban millennial dating and compatibility expert at Eye of Love, told The Post.

Once your profile is complete, sit down on the couch — maybe with the Golden Globes on in the background — and start swiping away.

On “Dating Sunday,” the number of messages sent on Tinder increases by 22%, users respond 19.4 minutes faster than on any other Sunday in the year, while the number of “likes” on the app increases by 18.2%, Tinder’s research showed.

With that, about 58.7 million more likes and 11.4 million more messages will likely be sent on the app, compared to the rest of the year.

So, even if perfecting your profile seems like too much work, at least crack open a dating app.

“Just going on … and interacting with other profiles gives you a much higher chance at finding love,” Tinder’s Simone said.

“There are so many possibilities to explore what you’re looking for,” she added.

“I encourage singles to have fun and put themselves out there — you never know what it’ll lead to!”