Why Girls Takes Forever to Text Back and What to Do About It (2023)

It can be so frustrating when a girl takes forever to text back. Whenever a girl takes 24 hours to text back, or even more, it can leave you wondering how serious this woman is about dating you.

In fact, one of the most frequent dating questions asked by men is: “If she doesn’t text back, is she not interested?” Other common questions surround the topic of how to get a girl to text you back.

The answers to both of these queries will be delivered in detail below. So, let’s dive in.

Why a Girl Takes Forever to Text Back

The answer to this question depends on your personal definition of “forever”. If she’s consistently taking a few hours to text you back, there could be a myriad of reasons why.

If she consistently takes 24 hours or more to text you back, it’s more clear that she’s really not that into you at all.

Why she takes hours to text me back

Modern expectations are blurred as far as how long it should take someone to text you back. When you think that a girl takes forever to respond, it's easy to conjure up a bunch of reasons why she's suddenly ignoring you. But let's be rational.

On one side of the argument, we all know that millennial and Gen-Z women are constantly glued to their smartphones. Yet, we all also understand that people are sometimes so busy that they won’t check their phone for several hours.

So, if you’re messaging a woman and she takes a long time to text back, it could be that she’s ignoring you. Or, it could be that she’s genuinely very busy. If you don’t know her schedule well, you’d need more information to figure out which of these options applies to you.

Then, if your texts are being deliberately ignored, you need to figure out if she’s playing hard to get or if she really doesn’t care about you.

Honestly, the best thing you can do when she takes hours to text back is to persevere with the slow messaging. If you have a fun and interesting life filled with other women to date and talk to, it shouldn’t be that stressful waiting for her to text back.

Then, eventually, it’ll become clear just how interested she is in meeting up for a date.

What It Means When a Girl Takes 24 Hours to Text Back

Yes, beautiful women receive a lot of messages. Yes, there are some women who have super-busy lives. But almost all of them will make the time to respond to a romantic interest who they really like within 24 hours.

So if a woman consistently takes more than a day to respond to you, it’s safe to assume that dating you is not very high on her list of priorities.

It is possible to pique her interest in you, and we’ll explore how to do that later in the article, but it’s also well worth focusing your attention on other women if this one takes so long to respond to your messages.

Note: You might be able to make an exception when texting certain older women. Older generations aren’t typically as addicted to their smartphones, and many are incredibly busy with work, family and other commitments. You might have to be more patient when texting an older woman. Check out this list of 5 recommended conversation topics that could inspire them to respond with more speed.

The Dating Apps Dating Pros Usually Recommend

Whether it's your first real relationship or you have a string in your past there are a few apps that dating experts recommend consistently. These are apps where you can meet great girls that want something long-term as well as those just looking to keep it casual:

Site	Our Experience	Our Rating	Free Trial Link
Best For Relationships	Experience Highlights Easily the best option for long-term relationships 75% of all online marriages start here 70% of users meet their spouse within a year In-depth signup and matching process	9	Try eHarmony
Best For Casual Fun	Experience Highlights The best way to meet women for casual relationships Best results for regular guys Over 60 million active members Not good for long-term relationships	9	Try AFF For Free
Great If You're Handsome	Tinder Highlights Great if you're pretty good looking Very popular, especially if you're 18-22 Really focused on photos Becoming more of a dating than hookup app	8	Try Tinder

How Long Should You Wait to Text a Girl Back

No one likes the “mind games” that take place during the initial period of getting to know a woman.

A lot of women subscribe to the idea that you should wait X amount of hours before responding to a man’s message, and that’s sometimes why a girl takes forever to text back.

The world would be far easier if no one believed in these rules.

But, the truth is: it does look needy and desperate to always text your crush back really quickly, especially if they are taking a long time to respond.

If you want, perform a Google search for “how long should I wait to text her back” and you’ll find a list of rules to follow, such as “always wait at least an hour” or “wait twice as long as she waited”.

By all means, follow them to make it look like you have an activity-filled lifestyle. Or you can actually create a busy, active and engaging life, so you’re not always glued to your phone, wondering why this particular girl takes forever to respond. This option is likely to be more fulfilling and less stressful.

What to Do When Someone Takes Forever to Text Back

The best thing you can do when someone takes forever to text back is: forget about it and go live an amazing life.

There are guys out there who live such action-packed lives that they barely realize when a specific woman doesn’t reply to their message. These guys often have so many women messaging them that it’s rare for them to be bothered by one woman taking a long time to reply.

They’re out having such a great time with friends, family or other women, that it’s obviously a woman’s loss if she doesn’t message him back.

This should be your goal too.

Ironically, when you create a lifestyle like this, women tend to text you back far quicker because they want to be a part of it.

Focus on your hobbies, making money, making more friends and creating a thriving social life. Check out these guides on creating a winning online dating profile and sending better messages, so that you can attract more women into this improved lifestyle.

Then, make sure to post plenty of photos and videos showcasing it on social media. That’ll do a lot to inspire women to text you back quicker too, as they’ll want to make sure they’re invited to the next cool event.

If you need a little help with that, check out this guide on making improvements to your life that make women envious.

How to Get a Girl to Text you Back

If a girl consistently takes forever to text back, there are a few messages you can send which can inspire her to message back.

Fun texts to send to get a girl to text back

One option is simply to send a “??”, the eyes emoji or something similar as a basic non-needy way to poke them and remind them to respond.

Some guys have success with sarcastic questions such as “have you been kidnapped?” or “too shy to respond?”

Let her know you’re on her mind without being creepy

Another great strategy is to send a fun update from your life without any questions for her to answer. It relieves her of the pressure to respond, but it can also give her a glimpse into your life. It’s essentially telling her that you’re thinking about her, but you’re not exactly looking for a response.

Use social media when a girl takes forever to respond

Alternatively, you can reply to her Instagram stories if you follow her on this platform. It instantly gives you a jumping-off point for the conversation. It might also make her think, “Right, I gave him my IG because he seems okay. What do I have to lose if I respond?”

Just keep in mind that with social media (especially for girls who have a public profile), your message might get lost in her inbox. So you might want to ask her a fun, flirty question to get her to respond.

These are all consistent ways to inspire a woman to respond to your previous messages, but only if she’s into you. If she’s not that into you, even the greatest texting techniques in the world will not be able to save your conversation.

That’s why your best strategy to encourage women to text you back will always be creating an amazing life that they want to be part of. And in the future, you might also want to start with an amazing opening message that will leave a lasting impression, thus encouraging her to always text you back.