What is Bumble? How the dating app differs from its competition, and what it offers women

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What is Bumble? How the dating app differs from its competition, and what it offers women
Bumble is mostly known as a dating app where women make the first move, but it also connects friends and expands professional networks.Alexander Pohl/NurPhoto/Getty Images
Table of Contents: Masthead Sticky
  • Bumble is a dating app that works a lot like Tinder — if both people swipe right, it's a match.
  • The biggest difference is that in heterosexual pairings, women have to be the first one to send a message.
  • Bumble also allows you to search for friends and business connections, rather than just dates.
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Bumble is a dating app that was launched in 2014 by a former Tinder executive. Like Tinder, Bumble uses a swipe right/swipe left model to let users sort through and match with potential partners.

While the app's approach is conventional enough that it will feel familiar to users of other dating apps, Bumble has a few unique features. For example, if a man and woman both "swipe right" on each other's profiles, only the woman can send the first message.

How Bumble differs from other dating apps

Not only does Bumble (iOS, Android) differ from many dating apps by putting women in the driver's seat - this is to reduce the volume of toxic and unwanted messages from men that many women face on dating apps - but the app supports a diverse range of orientations.

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While various dating apps specialize in heterosexual or non-hetero relationships, Bumble supports them all. When creating a relationship, you get to specify both your gender - man, woman, non-binary, or literally dozens of other self-identifications - as well as which gender you're interested in finding.

What is Bumble? How the dating app differs from its competition, and what it offers women
Bumble allows users to choose how they identify and to pick what gender they're looking for in a match.Dave Johnson/Insider

Bumble also has several modes: You can choose dating, BFF (for finding platonic friends), and Bizz (for career networking).

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What is Bumble? How the dating app differs from its competition, and what it offers women
Bumble aspires to be more than just a dating site.Dave Johnson/Insider

How Bumble works

To create a Bumble account, you're required to be at least 18 years of age. To get started, you can sign in with your Apple or Facebook credentials or use your mobile phone number.

After uploading at least one photo and creating a profile, you can swipe right to indicate interest in another person. If that person also swipes right in a heterosexual pairing, the woman must make the first move.

If she doesn't, the match expires after 24 hours, though users are given a limited option of extending a match for an additional 24 hours. (For same-sex matches, either person may start the conversation.)

What is Bumble? How the dating app differs from its competition, and what it offers women
Like many dating apps, you swipe right to make a match.Dave Johnson/Insider

If you prefer, you can also access Bumble on the web, as well as using the mobile app.

What Bumble costs

Bumble is a free app, and you can use it without paying any subscription fee. The app does offer three paid upgrades; however, the specific costs have been known to change as Bumble continues to test its paid features.

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Spotlight: When you use Spotlight, it boosts your profile for 30 minutes to make it more likely to be seen. Spotlights can be purchased on a singular basis or you can buy them in bundles to save money.

Boost: Boosts gives you a number of benefits, such as extending the time before matches expire, "Rematch," which gives you a second chance to get a response from an expired match, Spotlights, and SuperSwipes (which indicate a higher level of interest in someone than a standard swipe).

Bumble Premium: Premium gives you access to the Beeline, where you can see people who have selected you even before you swipe on them. You can also go incognito, get access to advanced filters, and other premium features.

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