Which Dating Apps Show Relationship Status?
Entry No. 097 ·
By The IF Team
Most of the big dating apps — Tinder, Bumble and Hinge among them — do not show relationship status: they ask what you are looking for and assume you are single. A few do show one. Grindr has an optional Relationship Status field, Feeld lets people link their partners’ profiles to their own, and Facebook shows a status on the main profile, though not on Facebook Dating. IF, a dating app for telling people how you feel whatever your status, puts single or in a relationship on every profile and lets it decide what happens: between two singles, an accepted Like opens a free chat, just as on any app, while a sealed IF can still carry the feeling when either of you is taken.
Wanting to know before you show interest is not nosy. It is considerate: nobody wants to find out a week into a good conversation that someone is engaged. But a status does not have to be a full stop. You can like someone long before you know their situation, and liking someone who turns out to be taken is honest, not shameful. So the useful question is what an app does with a status: leaves it for you to read alone, or uses it to keep every conversation closed while either of you is taken and still lets you say how you feel.
Most apps ask what you want, not whether you are single
As of September 2026, the mainstream apps let you describe the relationship you are after rather than the one you are in. Tinder has Relationship Goals, from a long-term partner to still figuring it out, and Relationship Types such as monogamy, ethical non-monogamy and open relationship. Hinge has Dating Intentions and a Relationship Type field. Bumble uses profile badges to show what you are looking for.
These are useful, but they are not a status. “Open relationship” tells you how someone approaches relationships. It may hint at a partner, but it cannot tell you whether there is one at home tonight. The apps assume, reasonably, that the people on them are single.
That does not always hold. In a 2018 peer-reviewed study, just over one in five of 1,486 Tinder users said they were on the app while in a committed relationship. Where no status field exists, the only way to find out is to ask. Feelings for someone new while you are in a relationship are human; on IF, your status sits on your profile, and no conversation ever opens while either of you is taken.
Dating apps with a relationship status field
As of September 2026, a smaller group of apps puts status on the profile itself, each a little differently.
Grindr
Grindr’s profile includes an optional Relationship Status field, with options such as single, dating, committed, partnered and open relationship, and it is among the filters on the paid Grindr Unlimited plan. You read it, and what you do next is up to you; a blank one tells you nothing. For queer apps more broadly, see our guide to LGBTQ+ dating apps.
Facebook (but not Facebook Dating)
Facebook has long let people add a relationship status to their profile and choose who can see it. That status belongs to the social network, not to Facebook Dating, which runs on a separate Dating profile. It is whatever someone last chose to share, which may have been years ago.
Feeld
Feeld is built around open and alternative relationships. Its Constellation feature lets you link your profile with up to five partners, who are then listed on your profile. There, a partner is not something you check for before you say hello; it is part of the context the app runs on.
All three display status and leave the rest to you. A relationship-aware app uses it to change what can happen.
What a status label can and cannot tell you
Every status on every app, IF included, is self-declared. No app can prove that someone is single today. So read a status the way you would read someone’s answer to a friend’s question at a party: a fair starting point, usually offered in good faith, and out of date the moment their life changes.
- It cannot tell you it is current. People split up, get back together and forget to update anything.
- It cannot tell you what the words mean to them. “Single” can mean newly separated; “open relationship” can describe a dozen different arrangements.
- It cannot tell you anything when it is blank, and on most apps it is optional.
- It cannot be proof. Verification badges confirm things like a face matching its photos, not who someone goes home to.
What a label can do is make the first conversation easier. If a profile says single and the person mentions a partner, ask plainly rather than guess. If you are wondering about one particular person in your life, asking in a way that is easy to answer beats any profile field. And on IF, the answer never decides whether you can say how you feel, only how.
What a relationship-aware dating app does differently
A relationship-aware dating app is one where status changes what you can do, and that is the idea IF is built on. For two singles, nothing about it is unusual: a Like, and if it is accepted, a chat.
Once either profile says in a relationship, Likes, matches and chats stop being possible between the two of you. What remains is the IF, a message of at most 250 characters that stays unopened until neither of you is taken. Because no conversation can open while either of you is taken, people in relationships are welcome on IF, and having it is not cheating. If you are the taken one and they are single, your IF reveals on the day you switch your own status to single, provided they have stayed single too. How an IF works has the detail for each case.
The difference between a label and a rule is who does the work. A label asks each person to behave well. A rule does it for everyone, so nobody marked as taken can be drawn into a chat. That is what makes honesty safe: the feeling can be said, and the relationship is left alone.
What a rule cannot do is make the label true. Status on IF is self-declared and can change at any time; IF does not check it, and the Community Guidelines ask everyone to be honest about it. When you do meet someone, marking yourself in a relationship clears your Likes and chats in one go, and you keep your account, so IFs can still reach you.
“In a relationship” on IF has a precise meaning, too: a monogamous relationship. If yours is open by honest agreement, so your partner knows and you have both said yes, IF recommends choosing single. That lets you Like, match and chat with singles within whatever the two of you have agreed, since in the app’s eyes you are available, and the same goes for a break during which you have both agreed to see other people.
What each app does with status, at a glance
Side by side, as of September 2026, the apps fall into a few clear groups.
- Tinder, Hinge and Bumble describe what you want rather than whether you are with someone: Tinder through Relationship Goals and Relationship Types, Hinge through Dating Intentions and Relationship Type, Bumble through profile badges. Our comparison of Tinder, Bumble, Hinge and Grindr sets out how they differ.
- Grindr shows an optional Relationship Status field, and paying members on Grindr Unlimited can filter by it.
- Feeld lists linked partners on a profile through its Constellation feature.
- Facebook shows a status on the main profile, but not on Facebook Dating.
- IF shows single or in a relationship on every profile and acts on it: Likes, matches and chats between singles, and a sealed IF when either of you is taken. It also lets you reach one person you already like, whatever their situation, by searching for an email address, phone number or Instagram handle they chose to give you.
If you want a status to mean something, rather than sit on a profile as a hint, IF is the app built around that.
Where IF fits: when the person you like is taken
The apps above treat status as something to read, and most stop there. When the person you like turns out to be with someone, the story usually ends with you holding the feeling, because those apps were written for a narrower idea of dating and have not caught up with how much honest feelings matter now. IF exists for that moment. It gives you a way to say what you feel — any feeling, about anyone — without judgement, and it protects the relationship they are in, because nothing opens until you are both single. Here is how it goes:
- Find them. Put in their email address, phone number or Instagram handle — one they gave you themselves — and nobody is told you searched.
- Write it. You have 250 characters, enough for what you noticed about them and the hope that, one day, the timing is yours.
- Send it, and carry on. They may learn that an IF is waiting for them, though not who it is from or what it says, and people can sometimes guess. If they are not on IF yet, their email address brings one short invitation, and a number or handle brings nothing.
- If you are both single one day, it can be revealed. Your profile and your words reach them together, the decision is theirs, and if they say yes, the chat that opens begins with what you wrote.
Between singles, IF is as straightforward as any app: Like each other, chat, and none of it costs a thing. What it adds is a place for the feelings other apps leave nowhere to go — the friend, the colleague, the person who is with someone else — and so more freedom to find the one you should be with. If you are the one in a relationship, you can send an IF too: having IF is not cheating, and what you send is your own business. The first IF you send is free; the membership page lists what the plans add.
Questions people ask
Does Tinder show relationship status?
Not as a current-status field. Tinder profiles can show Relationship Goals and Relationship Types, which describe what someone is looking for and how they approach relationships, not whether they have a partner now. If you want status upfront, IF shows it on every profile: single or in a relationship.
Does Hinge show if someone is in a relationship?
No. Hinge’s Dating Intentions and Relationship Type describe what someone wants, long-term or short-term, monogamy or non-monogamy, but there is no field for whether they are with someone today. The apps that do show one include Grindr, with its optional Relationship Status field, and Feeld, where partners can be linked to a profile. On IF, every profile shows single or in a relationship, and that status decides whether you send a Like or a sealed IF.
What is a relationship-aware dating app?
A dating app where relationship status changes what you can do. On IF, singles can Like each other and talk once a Like is accepted; if either profile says in a relationship, an IF is all that can be sent, and it stays sealed until you are both single. Grindr and Feeld show a status; a relationship-aware app uses it to decide what can happen.
Can you trust a relationship status on a dating app?
Treat it as a good-faith starting point, not proof. On every app, including IF, status is self-declared, optional on some, and only as current as the last time someone updated it. If it matters to you, ask. And on IF, the answer never stops you saying how you feel: a Like if you are both single, a sealed IF if not.
Is there a dating app for people who are already in a relationship?
Yes. IF welcomes people in relationships, and it is built so that nothing can open between two people while either of them is taken, only an IF that stays sealed until you are both single. That is why having it is not cheating. If your relationship is open by honest agreement, IF recommends listing yourself as single instead, and dating within what you have agreed. What no app makes fair is seeing someone new without your partner’s agreement: that is cheating, and pretending otherwise is lying.
Let a status start an honest conversation, never stand in for one. On IF, a Like says it when you are both single, and when either of you is taken, an IF keeps your words sealed for the day your timing finally matches.