Mashable

Hinge users may have noticed something subtle next to a potential date's profile: a tiny purple heart next to their name.

Hinge's new Signals feature. Credit: Hinge

Your eyes don't deceive you. This is a new feature called Signals, and it's currently in testing, according to a page on Hinge's Help Center. The badge indicates that the user demonstrates thoughtfulness and follow-through.

SEE ALSO: Hinge's latest feature makes date planning a little easier

Users can't buy a Signals badge. It's based on baseline requirements:

• A complete profile (with photos and prompt responses)

• The user's profile must be in good standing, meaning they follow Hinge's Community Guidelines

• The profile must be over a week old

• Completed selfie verification

If any of these aren't checked off, your profile won't have a Signals heart. Additionally, users must exhibit three of five behaviors Hinge calls "Thoughtful Participation," all of which involve actively engaging with other profiles.

These behaviors include sending comments when Liking, actually sending messages to matches, and confirming a date. Hinge also considers "looking before liking" a thoughtfulness factor: reading prompts, and scrolling past the first photo before sending a Like, suggesting that Hinge can detect all these behaviors. Reviewing one's Likes and matching or skipping (instead of leaving folks in limbo) is another point of thoughtfulness.

Credit: Hinge Credit: Hinge

"With Signals, we are testing a new feature that would make it easier for your small but meaningful actions to stand out to people viewing your profile," Hinge's chief product and technology officer, Ben Celebicic, said in an emailed statement to Mashable. "It's based on the behaviors daters have told us matter to them, like taking time to notice the small details on a profile or keeping the conversation going."

Signals is dynamic and based on activities over the last 30 days on the app. It refreshes daily, but doesn't reflect real-time activity. The Help Center page states that the heart reflects in-app patterns only; it's not a background check or ID verification (other than requiring selfie verification), and it also doesn't guarantee how someone will act with you.

Recent Hinge features typically nudge users towards better behavior, like Date Ideas for actually figuring out what to do on a first date, and Conversation Starters so singles aren't hit with the dreaded "hey" message.

Microsoft Teams is losing a feature that was launched back when many people were working remotely during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to Microsoft, the company is saying "goodbye" to Together mode in Microsoft teams and "moving to a simpler layout experience."

For those unfamiliar with Microsoft Teams, it's a cloud-based communication and collaboration platform that many businesses use as its part of the Microsoft 365 suite. Along with messaging and file sharing features, Microsoft Teams also provides Zoom-like video conferencing. 

In the summer of 2020, when remote work was at all-time highs amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Microsoft rolled out Together mode in order to help users "feel like you're sitting in the same room with everyone else in the meeting or class." The feature basically removed the background for every user on a video meeting and put them in a virtual room. Basically, the feature gave everyone a shared background so it looked like they were in the same space.

An example of Together mode that Microsoft provided when the feature was first introduced in July 2020 can be seen in the image at the top of the article.

Microsoft says it's removing Together mode for a few reasons. The company says it "increases cognitive load for users," "fragments the meeting experience across desktop, web, mobile, and Teams Rooms," and "adds implementation complexity across platforms."

"Today, the core need Together mode was designed to support, namely seeing the people who matter in a meeting, can now be fully met by the modern Gallery view, which can display up to 49 participants at once," Microsoft said in its announcement.

Microsoft Teams will now focus on Gallery mode as the view option in video conferencing. This is the traditional boxed view in video meetings, popularized by Zoom. Microsoft says doing so will "simplify the meeting interface," "deliver higher and more stable video quality across meetings," and "free up service capacity that can be reinvested into foundational video improvements."

Microsoft said it's also removing scenes and custom scenes, including seat assignments, along with Together mode in Microsoft Teams as well.

If you've been using a trusty Kindle device for the past 15 years, this week might be tough for some of you.

In case you hadn't heard, Amazon announced recently that it is ending support for many older Kindle models on May 20. This doesn't necessarily mean you have to stop using the device entirely, but it does mean you need to be prepared for what comes next. Here is all the info you need for the old Kindle shutdown this week, including what you can still do with the device once it happens.

SEE ALSO: Durobo's Krono e-reader is the perfect palm-sized e-reader — and a great Kindle and Kobo alternative Amazon Kindle shutdown: What you can still do

For starters, it would be good to know exactly which devices are being affected this week:

• Kindle (1st generation)

• Kindle (2nd generation)

• Kindle DX

• Kindle DX Graphite

• Kindle Keyboard

• Kindle 4

• Kindle Touch

• Kindle 5

• Kindle Paperwhite (1st generation)

• Kindle Fire (1st generation)

• Kindle Fire (2nd generation)

• Kindle Fire HD 7

• Kindle Fire HD 8.9

In other words, basically every Kindle released before 2013 is included in the list. As I said, this will mostly apply to people who have been hanging onto the same device for a decade and a half.

Anyway, let's talk about what "ending support" means in this context. According to Amazon, all of the Kindle models listed above "will no longer be able to purchase, borrow, or download new content via the Kindle Store." They'll still turn on, and you can still use them to read books already installed on the device, but you will no longer be able to purchase or download new ones directly from the Kindle Store.

As for what you can do from here, there are a few options. Your first option is to just download as many books as you possibly can on the device in advance of this coming Wednesday, and live with the fact that those are the only books you can have on that particular Kindle.

Some users are finding ways to sideload books or jailbreak their devices, according to PCMag, though it's important to note that doing so almost certainly violates Amazon's terms of service.

If none of those options sound particularly appealing, your last and best bet will be to check out our list of the best e-readers of 2026 so far and purchase a new one. Spending money on a new e-reader isn't especially fun, but Amazon has sorta backed old Kindle owners into a corner here.