We Know Red Flags, We Know Green Flags - But What In The World Are Beige Flags? Well, It's Complicated

Red flags are one of the first things we often hear about when it comes to looking for a significant other, and, as we all know by now, red means stop. On the other side, we have green flags — the signs that say "Go for it" when looking for love. But now we have beige flags popping up all over the place.

What the heck is a beige flag, and do they really matter? Alice Leach, creative director of TapDat (a dating app), told Newsweek that when spotting beige flags on dating apps, this includes "Using memes, jokes or recycled 'shock value answers." In addition to using emojis instead of words when answering questions, she added. But this is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to beige flags.

Once you're in a relationship, you may experience beige flags in things like your partner thinking their alarm won't go off if they turn notifications off on their phone, even when you tell them and show them it won't, according to a TikTok user named Cassandra Palumbo. With that in mind, let's look deeper into all the beige flags we can come up with and whether they're all that bad.

When beige flags first became the talk of TikTok, it was a warning sign that someone may be a tad (or a lot) boring. Of course, you may be looking for a boring partner, and who are we to judge? It looks as though a TikToker, Caitlin MacPhail, came up with the term "beige flag" and started the new trend off with a video all about beige being the new red when it comes to flags on dating sites. The TikTok video in question says that you're boring if you talk about things like whether condiments belong in the fridge or cupboard, among other silly food topics, because, as she says, no one really cares about these things. Romantic references to mainstream television shows are a sign you have no creativity and are thus boring. She goes on to mention more, but this was just the start of a slew of TikTok videos from multiple people on beige flags.

On dating apps, according to Hinge's Logan Ury, director of relationship science, via PopSugar, "Beige flags are signs that someone hasn't put much effort into their profile. The thought is that these online daters with 'beige' profiles won't be as much fun since their profiles lack more creative photos or responses." And really, a lack of creativity or attention once you're in a relationship can be very beige and boring as well. 

So, are beige flags a deal breaker? That depends on each individual facing a waving flag or boringness. One person's beige flag may be better than the red flags someone else sees everywhere. Bronte Crawley, a TikToker who posted one of the most popular videos on the subject, told Insider, "To me, a beige flag is something not quite green and not quite red." It would seem then that beige is possibly in between the two, not necessarily positive or specifically negative.

Of course, to make things more complicated, the originator of the term piped in over the popularity of people posting quirks about their partners, such as fellow TikTok user, Henry Gibbons, saying his girlfriend's beige flag is that she always has some illness, like a headache, saying these are not beige flags. Caitlin MacPhail got back on TikTok to remind us what beige flags are and aren't, saying, "These are not beige flags. These are annoying slash disgusting things that your partner does." She also said, "As you and I both know, a beige flag is something on a single person's dating profile that shows, without meeting them, that they might be really [expletive] boring." And there you have it.