Bumble Dating App Review: Is Women-First Actually Working?

Bumble: Tinder's Innocent Younger Sister

Swipe left on feral felines, swipe right on your prospective partner, and scroll down (if you dare) to see what makes little miss Bumblebee buzz.

Your profile on Bumble consists of up to six photos, interspersed with your catchy banter replying to pre-filled prompts.

Unlike Tinder, when you match on Bumble, the match expires after 24 hours unless an opener gets messaged. Usually, tThe girl usually must send the first message, occasionally to your mutual chagrin. 

As of 2024, girls can elect to let you make the first move. So make sure you check your match bubbles for a text-entry box. I find most girls send their (very low-effort wink emoji) opener ~immediately.

After the opener, Bumble requires a reply within 24 hours, otherwise the match will expire. Typically, the girl must send the opener so you can flood her inbox with replies if you wish (please don’t unless it’s a clever & fun Noah’s ark reference). 

Pros & Cons of Bumble

Bumble boasts over a million ratings on the iOS App Store, suggesting a large userbase. Bumble’s popularity extends far beyond the US; I dated girls from Bumble when I visited Colombia, Chile, Hawaii, and Ireland. Tinder reigns supreme as the international app, however.

The matches I receive on Bumble, convert to dates more frequently than on Tinder. I feel more at ease having normal conversations with girls on Bumble, whereas banter-or-ghost rules almighty on Tinder.

On free mode, Bumble breaks down who has liked you into New, Nearby, and Recently Active, so you can make an informed decision on whether paying for Premium is worth it (I have 50+ likes currently but zero nearby).

On the downside, Bumble’s 24 hour expiration policy requires daily dedication; users who have not synced swiping to their daily bowel movements may prefer another app.

Regardless, most frequent fliers will need to pay for Premium to use Travel Mode, defeating the otherwise stellar benefit-to-cost ratio of my recommendation to use free mode.

My string theory bff found the withholding of Likes on free mode intolerable. If you also find the Beeline bewildering as a billy goat, check out our review of Seeking (the single best app to find your trophy wife - as long as you’re willing to pay-to-message and sift through a sea of escorts).

If you’re like me, efficiency is the name of the game. As such, I’m often swiping while holding a big beefy burger by the buns.

Around 10% of the time, Bumble interprets my scroll down or scroll up as a swipe. This never happens when I use two hands for precision scrolling - but I’d rather save brain cells for astrophysics than swiping.

I suspect Bumble intentionally created this UI “flaw” as a feature, to improve the utility of their rewind feature. If this happens to you too, spread the conspiracy theory!

Who Is Bumble For?

Bumble caters to women. Since Tinder’s userbase consists of dude; dude; dude; girl (repeat), maximizing the app experience for women is ideal for straight men.

Career-oriented, educated women frequent Bumble in droves compared to Tinder. Why droves instead of swarms? Girls on Bumble tend to be much more kind and sweet (as honey 😋), than girls on Tinder.

Key Features of Bumble

Extend

At the free tier, you can Extend one match per 24 hours, which adds 24 hours for her to finally send an ascii smile emoji, passing the baton to you. More importantly, Extend sends her a notification and repositions your match bubble to the front of her queue. You can think of Bumble’s Extend as similar to Tinder’s “Super Like” but for existing matches.

Messaging

After the initial message and reply, matches are like diamonds: forever. Unless of course you throw that beautiful diamond ring into the yawning chasm of Mt Doom (AKA unmatch or report the bots and scammers). 

Bumble does segregate “Chats” from “Older chats” after seven days of inactivity; we all should agree at that point the match should R.I.P.

Interestingly, you get to keep the message history for members who delete their profile.

Similar to Tinder, you can send GIFs to spice up your text game. Bumble lets you play a question-game, send video & audio messages, as well as in-app video calls. Unlike Tinder, Bumble still lets you send photos. Still, your primary pre-date serenading will be via text.

In addition to Bumble “date” (the focus of this review), users can switch to “bff” mode to find friends and “bizz” mode to practice your CES pitch.

Premium Features

If you’re willing to pay for Premium+ you can swipe on “Trending” members - similar to Tinder’s Top Picks. 

Bumble’s Best Bees offers five “super compatible” girls per day, requiring Premium(+) to like. However, Bumble sends me a free “Best Bee Like” (not a SuperSwipe) every month or few. My “Best Bees” rarely electrify my heart though (too far away, have kids, too old, etc.).

Sign-Up Process & Creating a Profile

Getting Started

After downloading Bumble from the App Store or Google Play, you (sadly) must allow Bumble access to your location.

Bumble requires your phone number for SMS verification, to verify your humanity and to cut down on the number of bot, scam, and spam accounts. Nevertheless, a decent number of escorts and scammers plague Bumble, as with all dating apps, so stay frosty.

Photos

Photos, Photos, Photos. Unlike summoning Betelgeuse, photos play a crucial role in attracting your sweet honeybee. Upload up to six photos (or videos) from Facebook, Instagram, camera roll or take a photo (unless you’re setting up Bumble during a free solo of El Capitan, please don’t be that spontaneous).

Don’t worry about your photo order too much. Unlike the profile abomination which is Seeking, you can reorder your photos on Bumble with a simple drag and drop mechanic.

Next, verify your profile. You will be shown one of a hundred poses to mimic in a selfie. As of 2024, Bumble still (claims) to review verification photos by real humans.

Bio and Opening Move

Add your witty, clever, or (perhaps to your soulmate’s taste only) knee-slapping hilarious Bio.

Select up to five of your interests, respond to three prompts, and choose your Opening Move.  

The Opening Move sounds of crucial importance; Bumble says the Opening Move displays to your matches and allows them to respond to your prompted question rather than whiling away their 24 hours for their creative lightning strike.

In reality, the Opening Move shows up in your profile the same as any of the prompts (usually my matches don’t notice). You can choose one of a few options for Opening Moves or create your own.

Stats

Dish out personally identifying information galore:

• Height, work, education,
• Location, hometown, 
• Star sign, political affiliation, religion, education level
• How often you drink, smoke, exercise
• What you are looking for
• Relationship (the only real option for a man on Bumble)
• Your youngling status (ideal plans for children)

Optionally, add pronouns & languages. Connect your Instagram and Spotify.

Phew! Finished. Now get swiping :)

Bumble Costs

Everything you need to find a good girl to date is available at the free tier. I used Bumble Premium, and I have paid for additional SuperSwipes and Spotlight (equivalent to Tinder’s “Boosts”) in the past, but none are worthwhile.

Travel Mode entices me the most for Bumble Premium. The major downside of Travel Mode is that Bumble adds a bright blue indicator when you use it, whereas Tinder is much more subtle (just the distance changes, which you can remove).

Bumble consists of three paid tiers: Boost, Premium, and Premium+. Regardless of your tier, you can purchase additional Compliments, SuperSwipes, and Spotlights.

Boost:

• One week: $14.99
• One month: $29.99
• 3 months: $49.99
• 6 months: $79.99

Premium:

• One week: $27.99
• One month: $54.99
• 3 months: $109.99
• Lifetime: $269.99

Premium+:

• One week: $39.99
• One month: $79.99
• 3 months: $159.99

Compliments:

• 30 Compliments: $99.99
• 15 Compliments: $69.99
• 5 Compliments: $34.99
• 2 Compliments: $17.99

SuperSwipe:

• 30 SuperSwipes: $59.99
• 15 SuperSwipes: $39.99
• 5 SuperSwipes: $19.99
• 2 SuperSwipes: $9.99

Spotlight:

• 30 Spotlights: $74.99
• 15 Spotlights: $49.99
• 5 Spotlights: $24.99
• 1 Spotlight: $11.99

Boost includes one Spotlight per week, 5 SuperSwipes per week, unlimited likes, unlimited Extends (can only use once per girl still), Rematch (to un-expire a match), and Backtrack (to undo an accidental left swipe; unfortunately Bumble doesn’t let you undo accidental right swipes). 

Premium unlocks Beeline (lets you swipe on girls who already swiped right on you), advanced filters, Travel Mode, incognito mode, lets you Like all Best Bees, and all the features from Boost.

Premium+ offers improved likes similar to Tinder Platinum (makes you show up sooner in girls’ swipe stacks), grants access to swipe on the “Trending” tab (similar to Tinder’s Top Picks), as well as everything from Premium and Boost.

Compliments let you comment directly on your prospective queen bee’s photo or prompt that makes your heart buzzzzz.

SuperSwipes are Bumble’s equivalent of Tinder’s Super Likes.

Spotlights boost your profile (similar to Tinder’s Boosts).

How Swipestats Rates Bumble

I score Bumble 4/5 stars. While Bumble holds a special place in my heart for historical reasons, and still does an excellent job overall, Bumble no longer holds the #1 spot overall. The League is hands-down the top dating app in 2024 for ambitious go-getters.

Frequently Asked Questions About Bumble

If girls send the first message on Bumble, do they also pitch the meet-up? 

I do receive unsolicited snapchat usernames, cell numbers, and coffee date prep requests much more often on Bumble than Tinder. Nevertheless, most girls on Bumble still expect you to pony up and be the gentleman by asking her out.

Does Bumble offer sales on their paid offerings?

Occasionally Bumble will offer flash sales to entice you to dump more dollars in the future. Nowhere near as frequent as Seeking’s discounts, however.