The dating app Bumble announced on Tuesday that from now on, in heterosexual pairs, any user can send the first message. This cancels the rule that only women could start the conversation, which had been one of the defining features of Bumble for over a decade.
Additionally, Bumble is increasing the response time to 72 hours instead of the previous 24 hours. The company stated that this is intended to reduce pressure on users and give them more time to respond, without forcing them to constantly check the app to avoid losing a match.
Change in strategy and user reaction
This change is a significant step for Bumble, which built its brand around giving women control over starting conversations in heterosexual pairs. Launched in 2014, the app positioned itself as a more comfortable alternative to Tinder, where women decided whether to start a conversation, which was meant to help avoid unwanted messages and other undesirable behavior typical of dating apps.
Founder and CEO of Bumble, Whitney Wolfe Herd, called the update an evolution, not a retreat from the company’s original mission. She noted: “While women making the first move was a radical idea, being women-focused never meant just one way of communicating. It was about creating an experience with women’s needs in mind to achieve better outcomes for everyone”.
According to a Bumble survey, 66% of women surveyed said they prefer when men send the first message. Many of them noted that this could make the dating process less stressful. Additionally, more than half of the surveyed users said that a longer response time improved their experience using the app.
Herd added: “Today, our community is asking for more flexibility, less pressure, and more opportunities to create real, meaningful relationships, and that’s exactly what this new functionality provides. This evolution is not a departure from our original vision, but its realization”.
The change did not come as a complete surprise, as Bumble began softening its initial rules as early as 2024 by introducing the “Opening Moves” feature. It allowed women to place a question in their profile that a man could answer, effectively giving him the opportunity to start the conversation.
Financial difficulties and future plans
The change in rules comes amid Bumble‘s attempts to restore its business positions. The company’s financial report for the second quarter, released last week, showed a 15.2% year-over-year decline in revenue to 210.5 million dollars. At the same time, the company expects the number of paying users to decrease in the third quarter.
Over the past few quarters, Bumble has been trying to overcome the general slowdown in the online dating market. The industry is facing user fatigue, increasing competition, and the problem that swiping through hundreds of profiles is not necessarily an attractive way to meet people.
Recently, the company reported that it is exploring the possibility of developing an app without swipes, as well as plans to expand the number of offline events and use artificial intelligence features to attract more users, especially among Generation Z.
Source: TechCrunch
