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Never first, and never more than one. A group photo in the lead position is the single most expensive mistake on a dating profile: the viewer has about a second, and if they cannot tell which person you are, they swipe rather than work it out.
One group photo further down is useful - it shows you have a life with people in it - as long as you are unmistakably the subject of it.
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Show the photo to someone who has never met you and ask them to point at you. If they hesitate at all, the photo does not go on the profile.
The common failure is subtler than being lost in a crowd of eight. A photo of three friends where you are not central, not in focus, or not the one looking at the camera fails the same test.
A group photo invites a comparison you did not ask for. If the person next to you photographs better, that is who the viewer looks at, and a proportion of people will simply prefer them and move on.
This is not vanity advice. It is the reason a good solo photo usually outperforms a better group photo of the same person.
The strongest set is a clear solo lead photo, a full-length shot, something showing an actual activity, and then at most one photo with other people. Four to six photos total.
If your only good photos are group photos, that is worth solving directly - a friend with a phone and twenty minutes in decent daylight outperforms every photo you already own.
Fixed the profile and still nothing? Sometimes it is the pool, not the photos - the same profile does different numbers on different apps. See which app suits you
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