Q. Is double texting to get someone’s attention on a dating app and good or bad idea, data-wise? Sometimes I’ll send an opener and the person won’t respond. So, am I better off waiting, or sending another message?

Alex, 26, Chicago, IL

A. One of the most interesting things about working at Hinge is when the data proves you wrong. I am one of those people who believes (believed?) double texting is one of the lamest things a person can do, at least in the “getting to know you” phase. (After that, all bets are off — you’re getting nine paragraphs in a row from me whether you like it or not.)

Here’s the thing though — dating apps aren’t “real life,” if you consider “real life” good old fashioned texting. In “real life,” I still don’t advocate the double text to get someone’s attention. But on dating apps, it actually works.

How it works, though, is another story. Our data scientists analyzed 300,000 conversations over the course of two weeks in which double texts were sent on a lag as openers. This means the person to initially message sent another message (the double text) some time after the first message. This ensured the initial message was not just a “two line text,” which we did not want to count.

Of the people who double texted, we found that if the second message was sent three hours and 52 minutes or more after the first message, the person being messaged was more likely to respond than not.

But what if you’ve already waited much longer than that? Good news — even if you wait a week before double texting, that second message will result in a response in more than one in three cases, up from one in 500 if that second message wasn’t sent.

Bottom line? On dating apps, double texting actually does work, so message away.

*May 2017 Hinge data analysis