This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at UC Riverside chapter.

If we’re being honest, I think we can all agree that “Zoom University” is not the best way to make new college friends. We’ve been stripped of opportunities to get acquainted with our seat mates for the quarter, walk to class together, or go on study dates to the library before midterms. Instead, these have been replaced with painfully awkward zoom breakout rooms, way less interaction outside of class, and group chats or discords if you’re lucky.

Woman with curly hair waving and saying hi to someone through her laptop. — Photo by Yan from Pexels

A while back, my sister and I got to talking about using dating apps but for finding friends. It started off as a relatable joke until I decided to look it up. A quick search on the app store told me that many of these apps already existed, one of the popular ones being Bumble. Though Bumble is widely known as a dating app, it has two other features: Bumble BFF for finding friends and Bumble Bizz for networking!

So I downloaded the app, spent a bit of time building my profile, and got to swiping. Using the app was easy enough, and I started getting matches the same night. Anyone on Bumble BFF can make the first move to swipe. Then, once you both swipe right on each other, you become a match and have 24 hours to start chatting. Honestly, deciding potential friendships based on a single profile and whether or not you got swiped on could feel weirdly judgy at times, but I did like the equal opportunity the app provided to both sides since it made it feel less intimidating to send the first message once you did match.

Woman staring at phone at night — Photo by mikoto.raw from Pexels

I mainly swiped on people who had really personalized profiles (had a handful of get-to-know-me questions, linked their spotify accounts, had multiple pictures, etc.) and went to my university. I had conversations with nearly every match I had but, of course, only a few of them stayed consistent. I talked to people about their days, their majors, and any interests we had in common. Longer conversations came to an end with exchanging instagrams or snapchats to stay in touch more later, which seems to be the aim of the app.

I’m still talking to some of the same girls and starting new conversations with others but my first impression is that it was a fun experience. It wasn’t exactly the same as running into people on campus, but I got to feel some sort of a ‘meeting-new-people’ rush again and all of the girls were super sweet as expected. And despite not finding a brand new BFF persay, I did learn more about myself. Making the profile forced me to pay more attention to what I distinctly wanted to look for in new friends, what I felt was important to me, and what I thought would get my personality across the most. So, overall, I’d say Bumble BFF is a nice, easy, and low-effort way to meet new people during quarantine. You’ll get out of it what you put into it!

I Tried Bumble BFF for a Week in Quarantine

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