Every family looking for a match for a son or daughter has a few things it will not compromise on, and others that are welcome but not essential. Vivaah draws that line with two words: preference and must-have.
Preference and must-have
When you make a profile, you fill in “Partner preferences”. There are 17 of them, in five groups:
| Group | Preferences |
|---|---|
| Basics | Age, height, marital status |
| Religion & community | Religion, community / caste, mother tongue |
| Location | Country, state / region |
| Education & career | Highest qualification, occupation type, occupation, annual income |
| Lifestyle & family | Diet, smoking, drinking, family type, family values |
On its own, each one is only a preference. Preferences decide how closely a profile matches you, and every profile shows how many of their preferences you meet and how many of yours they meet. A profile that meets none of your preferences can still be shown to you.
Turn on “Make this a must-have” inside a preference and it becomes a must-have. The list then shows ✱ beside it.
What a must-have does
Must-haves work both ways.
- Your must-haves, applied to others: a profile that does not meet one of your must-haves does not see your profile in Home or Search, and cannot send you an interest. If it tries, the app tells it why.
- What you see: Home shows you only profiles that meet your must-haves.
- Other families’ must-haves, applied to you: another family’s must-haves apply to your profile too. If a girl’s family has made age 25 to 30 a must-have and your son is 32, you will not see that profile and cannot send it an interest.
The result: interests come to you only from profiles that meet your must-haves. And anyone who can send one cannot send more than 20 interests a week.
People who haven’t answered
Not everyone fills in every detail. What happens when someone has left diet or income blank is decided by one switch: “Include people who haven’t answered”.
- Switch off: a blank answer does not meet your must-have.
- Switch on: a blank detail counts as a match, even for a must-have.
One more point on income: anyone can hide their income from others. The app still uses hidden income when it checks an income must-have.
What the app fills in for you
The app suggests some preferences from your own profile. The profile’s religion comes in as a must-have. If the profile is of someone never married, marital status “Never married” also comes in as a must-have. Age, community, mother tongue and country come in only as preferences. Look at them before saving, and change anything that does not suit your family.
How many must-haves to set
Every must-have removes some profiles. With too many at once, Home may show: “Nobody matches your must-haves right now.”
Keep must-haves for the things without which you would not take the talk forward. Leave the rest as preferences; they count in matching but stop nobody.
An example. Say you are making a profile for your 26-year-old daughter:
| Preference | Your choice | Must-have? |
|---|---|---|
| Age | 26 to 31 years | Yes |
| Marital status | Never married | Yes |
| Diet | Vegetarian | Yes, if that is how the home runs |
| State / region | Bihar, Jharkhand, Delhi | No |
| Highest qualification | Graduate or above | No |
This way a good match working in Pune still reaches you, because state is only a preference. But anyone over 31, or anyone who is not vegetarian, cannot send your daughter an interest.
Changing them later
Must-haves can be changed at any time in Profile → Partner preferences. When you add a new must-have, any interest still waiting for your reply that does not meet it is closed.
In Search you can change the filters for one search, must-haves included. The changes last until you close the app, and your saved preferences stay as they were. Other families’ must-haves still apply in Search.
Talk to your son or daughter first
Before you set must-haves, talk with your son or daughter about which things truly matter, such as age, height, education or diet. Then make only those must-haves in the app.
No profile yet? Get the biodata ready first: How to make a marriage biodata.