Millennials might have the most exercised fingers in history.
Dating applications like Tinder and Hot or Not require the user to swipe left and right between potential mates until they create a match. Sometimes these matches can collect dust in the app until someone decides to be courageous enough to send the first message. Yet another dating app is on the market and it seems to eliminate the waiting game.
Bumble, which launched in 2014, works similarly to Tinder. Only once you make a match, you only have 24 hours to contact the other person, AND the woman has to message first. If she doesn’t, the match will disappear forever. Once a day you can extend a connection for another 24 hours.
Senior government and politics major Allyson Winburn started using Bumble after her roommates recommended it. She used Tinder in the past, but was interested in this new concept.
“I think that having it be so that the girl has to message first or the match expires takes away any of the stigma that a girl messaging first carries on apps like Tinder and just life in general,” Winburn said. “Every time I have messaged a match on Bumble, the relative anonymity of it allows me to absolutely be myself and not really care about impressing these people, as most of them I will never actually meet.”
Using her emoji-filled bio – wine glass, taco, desert – as a conversation starter, Winburn deemed one guy worthy, and safe enough, to meet in person. They had a few casual dates but it didn’t turn into anything.
“I find that it’s a fun way to waste time so it’s only really as positive or casual as you make it,” Winburn said.
When it comes to Bumble users interested in the same sex, either party can message first. You can set your preference to male, female, or everyone.
“I’m bisexual so the preferences are set to everyone,” sophomore physiology and neurobiology major Sarah Brown typed to me in a Bumble message. “Sometimes it’s a little weird because no one is sure who should message first, but it works out pretty well.”
Brown started using the app when a friend suggested it to her.
“…I was complaining about Tinder,” Brown wrote. “[My friend] said it’s generally a more respectful environment and I’ve found that to be pretty true.”
Winburn also agrees that there is something slightly different about Bumble and Tinder users.
“Dating apps are completely what you make of them and I think Bumble more so than Tinder comes with a clientele that is much less likely to make the messaging experience unpleasant and … really gross or too forthcoming,” Winburn said.
I took it upon myself to message a few of the male matches I made to get their perspective on the app inspiring female empowerment.
Senior English major Miles Stevenson said that he likes that women have to message first. He has used both Tinder and Bumble and prefers the latter.
“This one got me laid,” he wrote to me.
Stevenson and Brown both say that they have more matches on Tinder, but Brown does not believe it has anything to do with the way the app is set up.
“…I think it’s more because of the sheer amount of people who use Tinder versus Bumble,” Brown said.
A November Marie Claire article reported that there are 50 million active Tinder users, and it still seems to be the most known-about dating app at UMD.
Bumble, whose founder Whitney Wolfe created the company after leaving her position as Tinder co-founder amidst a sexual harassment lawsuit, is gaining recognition. In September, they partnered with Snapchat promoting their app through geofilters at more than 2,000 colleges and universities, according to Teen Vogue.
It is unclear if we will ever have a dating app surpassing the popularity of Tinder, but as I come across more and more UMD students on Bumble it is obvious that the app is gaining momentum in College Park.