I think we can all agree that dating apps are getting stale. Be honest: by now, we’ve all fallen victim to the mindless, bored swiping and letting our messages expire with little to no remorse. Recently, however, Bumble acknowledged Gen Z’s exhaustion when it comes to dating apps and teased a rebrand of the app. And while some Gen Zers are hopeful about the Bumble rebrand, others are inclined to swipe left.
On April 30, Bumble debuted a new look on the app after a week of cryptic posts, teasing a rebrand. What was once a bright yellow, happy-looking, bee-inspired interface has been replaced by a sleek, white and grey aesthetic with some signature yellow accents. It’s kind of like if those big, modern apartment complexes popping up in your city were an app.
But that’s not all. Bumble also introduced various features to inspire stronger connections with daters on the app: “Opening Moves,” which allows women to set a post-match question for their connections to respond to within 24 hours, and “dating intentions,” which now includes a variety of romantic relationship choices, including Long Term Relationship, Life Partner, Fun, Casual Dates, Intimacy without commitment, Ethical non-monogamy, and Marriage.
Bumble has also adjusted its algorithm to include a “For You” set of four curated, relevant profiles based on preferences and past matches, as well as moving profile commonalities and shared interests higher on profiles, and increasing photo requirements to four photos.
Current Bumble user (and Her Campus Wellness writer) Avery, 23, says that she was “let down” by the app’s rebrand. “Maybe I was being overly optimistic but I was expecting a whole entire revamp — like completely new features,” she says. “I know what differentiates [Bumble] is women making the first move, but the whole marketing campaign was that women were ‘exhausted,’ so that made me think they were going to allow men to make the first move in some capacity.”
While Opening Moves does allow men to make more of a first move, Avery thinks that Bumble should’ve taken things a little further, instead of putting the entire responsibility on women. “I’m glad they integrated that feature but it definitely wasn’t anything huge.”
Breanna*, 22, was also disappointed in the app’s rebrand, and hoped that Bumble would include more features to make online dating safer for women. “In my experience, I never realized how many, like, creeps and potential groomers are lurking around in plain sight on that app,” she says. “A part of me feels like dating apps like Bumble create forced relationship dynamics, and it doesn’t feel as authentic.”
RaeAnn, 26, met her partner on Bumble, pre-rebrand, in 2019. However, if these features were around back then, she would’ve been excited to use them. “I think [Opening Moves] just makes the ‘women first’ feature even stronger,” she says. “The stress of coming up with something to say is totally eliminated. Also, you can set it up to ask a question that automatically weeds out the losers.”
RaeAnn is also a fan of the new dating intentions feature. “I feel like Bumble, more so than other apps occupies a weird space: Tinder is clearly for hook up, Hinge is clearly for relationships, but Bumble could be either. So, I love that they’re doing this,” she says.
Users are also divided on Twiter/X.
So, where do you stand? Are you swiping right on the new Bumble, or swiping left?
* Names have been changed.