Bumble (March 2023)

Who Uses Bumble?

Bumble was created as a feminine lead app. The idea here is that woman make the first move. Once a match is made based on mutual likes, the female side of the match has 24 hours to write the first message. If they do not write, the match is deleted.

Unfortunately, many of the female users fail to understand this and matches just disappear. There are thousands of female profiles complaining that the men match and never write or demanding that the male writes first. But this is impossible. Perhaps Bumble needs to refresh this concept into the users’ minds.

The majority of Bumble users in Europe (it is slowly growing here) are people in professional jobs/industries and with an expat background of at least a strong command of English. They are a particular community, in a sense, often not very traditional in the sense of Swiss or German lifestyles. City, professional folk… business-like… successful to an extent.

These users seem to be moving to Hinge since 2022… where Hinge is being pushed as the new app for this segment of the market.

Weaknesses

A weakness of the Bumble App is that if you live close to a border you are still limited to people living within your country. This is a completely inappropriate matching system when you are using the app in Europe with borders sometimes within a few kilometers. To overcome the limitation, you have to be a premium member and change your location using travel mode. This in turn becomes problematic because you are not shown to users in your country during this time.
C’mon Bumble, sort this out. You have the distance filter, get rid of borders.

Lifetime Premium

Something we find quite unique, on Bumble you can buy a lifetime of premium for about 214 EUR

Don’t Pay Premium to See Likes

We don’t think you need to buy premium to see likes. Bumble shows the profiles that like you in a screen with blurred out images. If you go to the Web App version of Bumble (also mobile app but easier to see on big screen) you can continue swiping and within about 10 or so profiles, a liking profile will be shows. You can normally fairly easily recognise the colors, shapes and shading of the blurred photo.

As soon as you swipe right or left, the like disappears.

Free Version Limitations

The free version only allows you to view and swipe for a limited number of profiles every day.

Features

Profile Creation

Bumble (March 2023) does not feature comprehensive profiles - that is, you are quite limited in what information you can include or filter. This makes matching a lot more hit-and-miss and means you have to get some small talk out of the way with new matches. This might have been avoided if the profiles were more comprehensive.

Profiles at Bumble (March 2023) include tags and prompts. Tags give you the chance to show a few of your interests or a little about your lifestyle - or learn those of other daters. Prompts can be a helpful starter to get you writing a little about yourself... and of course to find out more about your potential matches.

Searching / Filtering

When it comes to finding your match on Bumble (March 2023) you are not able to search for them, rather profiles are presented to you in a roulette-style card stack and you choose to either like or pass on each person. The first filter you will likely use is the location filter. Premium users are able to edit the location they want to match in.

Once you have found the profiles you are interested in, you are able to view the photos of those members as a free user.

Sending / Receiving Likes

Bumble (March 2023) operates with the familiar dating app system where you match with other users when you have both given each other a like.Sending likes is free, however there are limits to how many you can send. If you are a premium member, you can see who has liked you.

To stand out from the crowd, as a premium member, you can send a super-like.

You can pay to buy packs of super-likes and use them to stand out from the crowd. Boosts bring your profile to the front of the pack for a short time. These are available with a premium subscription or can be paid for separately. Premium members can undo/rewind their like if they accidentally like someone unintentionally or change their mind.

Matching Aides

Bumble (March 2023) doesn't include any features to aide in matching, such as: Curated Matches, Compatibility Quizzes/Scores or a Question & Answer system.

Messaging

In Bumble (March 2023), you can send messages to - and read messages from anyone that you have matched with. This is included in the free version of the app. Read receipts are not - or may not - be available.

You can send Video files. Bumble (March 2023) includes a video chat feature. This is a great way to get to know your matches a little better. We always recommend having a video chat before you meet - it really helps filter out scammers.