Bumble Is Moving Away From Swiping, Plan To Replace It With A.I.

[RAMROD 117,249]

The bell is tolling for the swipe. Last week, Bumble founder and CEO Whitney Wolfe Herd told Axios that the company would remove the swiping feature that’s defined dating app culture for the last decade. The app will also no longer require women to message first in heterosexual matches, a definitive feature that set Bumble apart from many of its competitors. 

A major platform shifting away from the swipe’s gamification of dating seems to warrant a sigh of relief, but the question remains: what will take its place? Is there a better solution that can bring people back to dating apps? 

It’s been clear for a while that young adults are jaded with tech-assisted dating, with various surveys citing “dating app burnout” and increased interest in matchmaking services. Bumble’s internal data shows this, too: TechCrunch reports that the company is planning “a big overhaul meant to win back Gen Z” as paying users are down over 20% from a year ago.

“People are feeling exhausted, they’re feeling fatigued,” Wolfe Herd told Axios. “They feel like the swipe has degraded their love lives.”

So what is Bumble’s big plan to make dating apps exciting and effective again? Artificial intelligence, naturally.

Bumble is currently testing an AI dating assistant feature called Bee, which will collect data about a user’s interests and dating preferences to find more compatible matches. This integration will also power Dates, an AI experience that is “designed to help you move from match to meeting IRL, without losing momentum along the way.”

Bumble 2.0, the name of the app’s updated platform, will also introduce “chapter-based profiles,” creating user pages composed of short story sections, as if you were reading a “chapter” of someone’s life compared to the current format, which feels more like an identity card with someone’s name, age and a short bio. The goal with this is to “help members tell their stories more authentically and understand one another more deeply,” Wolfe Herd said.

That’s all well and good, until you understand that Gen Z feels increasingly skeptical and even angry about the proliferation of AI. Many do use it, but it’s not necessarily coming from the desire to engage with the technology so much as it feels like a necessity to stay up to date and gain a sense of fluency. I can’t imagine young adults who are sick of dating apps and tired of AI will suddenly feel their love life is rejuvenated when those two are combined. 

Bumble has yet to fully roll out its new AI-powered platform, so it’s impossible to say how effective replacing the swipe with robo-matchmaking will be. But it also seems clear that throwing more tech at the problem isn’t going to be a cure-all, especially while many young adults are experiencing what some have deemed an “intimacy crisis.”

https://www.insidehook.com/sex-and-dating/bumble-dating-app-swipe-dying

[southpaw773 4,371]

Can Grindr get rid of taps next 

[LateToCult 41,933]

The children yearn for dowries 

[NemoMyName 2,224]

May every CEO selling user data and pushing AI face bankrupcy and eternal damnation

[Economy 52,895]

Bumble required women to message first? Why was that?

[Pandauralife 996]

11 minutes ago, LateToCult said:

The children yearn for dowries 

I'm so ready to just enter an arranged marriage at this point 

[PoshLife 17,019]

"Bumble is currently testing an AI dating assistant feature called Bee, which will collect data about a user’s interests and dating preferences to find more compatible matches."

Legacy websites from eHarmony to PlentyofFish to OKCupid were doing this 20 years ago. They just call it AI now for the investors.

[FFXIV WhiteMage 6,316]

1 hour ago, Economy said:

Bumble required women to message first? Why was that?

Women can post questions that men can answer, so not anymore. 

Initially, it was to give women control over their messages and honestly a branding strategy to differentiate them from Tinder and other apps. But obviously that didn't work and they've received complaints about how it's burdensome to always make the first move 

 

It'll be interesting how this new feature with AI will work. Hopefully it's not s scam where you get to be matched with an AI instead 

[ImpossiblePrincess 3,930]

Their first priority should be recruiting people to join the app that aren’t ****ing atrocious tbf?

[Ziggy 14,087]

Using AI to flirt?…who’s going to be giving the handjobs, WALL-E? Ffs

[Pigatha 1,336]

I don't see how this is really going to help that much, more and more people are just sick of dating apps by how fake and awful the people on there are, I prefer to meet people organically tbh.

[AVeryGagaHolyDick 32,036]

Who uses that anyway 

[steven 6,546]

I've seen that Grindr have started this new AI tool too, but it cost like $100 which is insane..

Edited May 15 by steven