What's the best opening line on a dating site?

Her photos tell you what she looks like and maybe what she does on weekends. Her written prompt answers tell you what she wants to talk about, and that is the more useful signal. People write their prompts with a specific hook in mind, often something funny or a story they like telling. If a prompt answer invites a follow up question, that is your opening. If she has a dog in three photos and a bio that mentions the dog, the dog is a safe thread because she has already told you it matters to her. Look for the thing she put effort into writing, since that is the thing she expects someone to pick up. A photo of her hiking gives you a question about hiking, but a prompt about a hiking disaster gives you the story she wants to tell. Go with the prompt when you have both.

When she puts a detail in her profile, she is making a choice about what to show a stranger. Respond to the choice, not to what you assume she is like. If she wrote that she will judge your playlist, a question about what her worst song is will land far better than a comment about her humor. The question should be easy to answer in one line but interesting enough that she wants to add a second line. Keep your message short enough that she can reply on her phone while doing something else. A good test is whether she could answer you in a single text without having to think hard. If the question requires a long essay, she will either skip it or send a one word reply, and both leave you with nothing to follow up on.

Timing matters less than people think, but there is a pattern worth knowing. Messages sent in the evening, between about seven and ten, tend to get replies more often than messages sent during the workday, because people are on their phones with more time to spare. If you send at the same time she is most active on the app, your message is more likely to be near the top when she opens it. Once you have sent, give it a day before you follow up. If she replies within a few hours, match her pace roughly and do not send three messages in a row. If there is no reply after two days, send one short follow up that refers back to the original detail, then stop. If she still does not answer, let it go. Chasing past that point reads as pressure and usually ends the match faster than silence would.