Tinder holds a certain stigma about being for “hook ups” rather than a dating app, a stigma more than pretty much any other dating app that is out there today. Users can “swipe left” on photos of potential matches to reject them, or right to show interest. It’s a pretty simple concept and most find it easy to find someone to hook up with.

However, there is a chance that people are able to find love in a seemingly hopeless place. Users just have to fish through the many different people to get to that potential match. It isn’t necessarily easy and may take work, but it’s truly possible.

User Alyssa (whose name has been changed for anonymity) decided to try the app anyway, despite its known reputation for being primarily for hook ups.

“Realistically, if I was going on there looking for something more than that, there must be others with the same thing in mind too,” said Alyssa. “You just have to wade through the waves of those looking for a fling.”

Over the past year, Alyssa went out with three guys due to dating apps, and just when she was about to give up on Tinder and it’s endless swiping, that was when she met her current boyfriend.

What made it different for her was that they would message from sunrise to sunset about anything and everything. This went on for a week before they decided to meet up for their first date at Dave & Busters.

“I had zero filter at this point, I wasn’t trying to present some ideal version of myself, just me, so he would be interested in me and my weirdness or not,” said Alyssa.

Now, how is it that users can get down to finding someone?

The first step is to narrow the search range. People who are looking for anything such as hook ups might set a big age and distance range rather than hone in on a more reasonable-sized net.

In reality, a 28-year-old will probably not be able to have a serious relationship with an 18-year-old. Not that it’s never happened, but as far as life experiences go, it makes it more difficult to connect, thus it’s probably just a hook-up or fling that end up happening.

The next step means actually chatting with people out there and weaning out the people who only immediately ask to hook up. Those who make an effort to have a conversation probably have more interest and are looking to potentially date.

Karla (also renamed for privacy), another Tinder user, decided not to have many expectations when it came to the “swiping game.” Her mindset was in the middle of finding a “relationship” and “whatever happens.”

After three years of fiddling with dating websites and applications, Karla had only dated about 10 guys, none of which worked until she met her current boyfriend.

In the beginning, Karla was nervous about actually meeting this guy so it took some time for her to finally meet with him.

“I kept bailing on [him] and putting off meeting him for over a month and I finally realized that I had nothing to lose,” said Karla. “This guy wants to get to know me so I just took a leap of faith, and I’m so happy I did!”

They hit it off right off the bat and also set clear expectations so they both knew they weren’t just looking for a hook-up, but would want to take it slow to see if a relationship could emerge.

Eight months later, they’re still going strong.

The fact of the matter is that Tinder really does work. In this day and age it’s hard to meet people when the routine is the same with school and work and sometimes meeting people at bars usually means hook ups, too.

If a person does Tinder right, even though it may get tiring, they might just find that someone who wants the same things they do. It never hurts to try.

An important thing to remember is just to be safe out there. Regardless of where one meets a person—whether it’s at school, work, or a dating application—get to know them and make sure they’re real and not a shady being (explaining this would be an entirely different article, though).

Happy swiping!