Bumble Dating – A Hookup App Overview

Bumble is one of the biggest dating apps in the modern world. With over 40 million registered users, it’s second only to Tinder in this regard. It’s also a lot like Tinder in functional terms, which makes the usual dating app visitors will be just as comfortable with this solution.

However, there are also tons of differences that make Bumble a unique and friendly environment for many groups of people. Unlike many dating apps out there, Bumble is more about actually connecting to your matches and not just for finding one night stands. Of course, no one tells you can’t simply look for intimacy here.

Thanks to the extensive tagging functionality, Bumble is very useful for reaching out to the like-minded individuals.

How does Bumble work?

Bumble works similarly to Tinder, which simplifies the transition for people who decided to switch from the latter to the former. This similarity is easily explained – the creator of Bumble was also a co-founder of Tinder. You don’t need to come up with something else if you know how to make a wheel.

Because of it, Bumble also revolves around matches, cards, swiping and proximity search. If you are unfamiliar with Tinder, it doesn’t mean you’ll struggle with Bumble. On the contrary, Bumble was made even more user-friendly and generally comfortable to work with than Tinder.

Creating an account

It all starts with creating an account with Bumble. You won’t need to supply a lot of personal information to be allowed it. You only need to state your first and second name, your phone number and submit a photo made at the moment of registration. A special tool will appear to catch you face in a precise position.

It’s necessary to make sure you’re a living person, and not a bot. As you doubtless understand, it’s all to the better. And after all, you won’t go far here without a photo. But other than that, you don’t have to submit data.

With that said, you’re advised to do so, because you’ll miss out on most of the key functionality of this app otherwise. You’ll see what that means in a moment.

Matching

Once you’ve created an account with Bumble, you’ll be welcome to start matching with people. There are three types of matching you can do, each type having its own distinct section:

1. Bumble Date;

2. Bumble Bizz;

3. Bumble BFF

They work in the same way, and nothing changes from one to another in regards to features and possibilities. It’s just your intentions in each section that change. 

The first section is the standard one – it’s where you come to date people. The matches you’ll find here range from people in search of a soulmate to those looking for more intimacy. Ultimately, you’ll be able to choose whom to look at.

The second section is about business opportunities. It’s rather unorthodox to see this functionality inside what was initially a dating app. However, it works very well. Because of Bumble’s tagging capabilities (you’ll learn about them in just a moment), you can make perfect connections and reach out to the people you may start a business with easily.

The third one is almost like the dating type, but aimed at matching you with like-minded individuals simply for the purpose of making friends or fit into the community if you’ve just moved to a new place. Again, the functionality works great with it.

Tagging

Before starting to swipe people in your match feed, you need to fill your profile out with details. There are usual details that get displayed to anyone who sees your happy face in a match feed. It includes: your age, occupation, and the first name.

It’s not the end of it, however. 

Bumble employs a game-changing feature that allows you to add multiple (many, in fact) tags about various qualities. These parameters will later be used by the algorithm to find better matches for you. These tags can mean very different things, such as: your hobbies, your stance on various topics, gender, sexuality, even political views.

Each tag is accompanied with a comprehensive icon that tells people who look at it what the tag is about. It’s made to simplify your profile and make room for many more other parameters. Don’t save on space – you can literally fit dozens of these tags inside your profile for a better, concise description of your very own self.

It’s very handy specifically because there are so many of these tags, and many of them have many variations.

For instance, a tag with a dumbbell icon can have several words accompanied it – for instance: ‘sometimes’, ‘regularly’ or ‘never’. It signifies just how often you work out. There are many various tags like that. They are very useful, both for finding people with the same interests as you and seeing if your schedules collide.

Additional profile settings

To fill out your account, you only get put a handful of pictures for people to look at, as well as a short description. There is a cute motto feature that allows you to tell people a bit about yourself by picking one of the many pre-set motto beginnings and then pick the end.

It works like this:

1. For instance, you pick a beginning that says ‘We’ll get along if…’;

2. If you are a cheerful personality, you’ll pick ‘You can cherish a moment’;

3. As a result, when people visit your profile, one of the first things they’ll see is a bubble that says ‘We’ll get along if you can cherish a moment.

It’ll allow you to tell people a lot about yourself of chat without overthinking the description. It’s also a sort of security measure. You can’t always catch people who write profanities inside their profiles, and this approach does it job and makes sure you don’t break your immersion.

Actual swiping

When it comes to swiping, you’ll need to be careful. It is an easy enough task. In the match feed, you’re presented with the number of potential matches from your approximate area. In the settings, you can customize just how wide it is, as well as what genders you want to see and how old your matches are supposed to be.

According to these parameters and your own tags, you’ll be given a number or matches in a form of cards that can be swiped away – to the right (if you liked the profile and want to risk a conversation) or to the left (if you want to skip the match).

Be careful, however, as the matches you rejected can’t be accessed again, unless you buy Bumble Boost. More on that note a little further below.

You are also given just a limited number of matches. Once you’re through with them, you’ll have to either wait a day and return later or expand the search parameters to include more matches. It can all be done within a few clicks. But the general advice is to be economical with your swipes and look into each option.

Another curious feature in Bumble is that female users are actually given an ability to start a conversation if they were matched with a male user, one way or another. A male user can only send a message if he was paired with another male user. If you didn’t specifically enable same-sex matches in the settings, it won’t happen, however.

That’s the primary reason why this service was called ‘feminist Tinder’ many times over. Here, only a woman can decide whether whoever gave decided to ‘like’ her is worth starting a relationship with. Although it may be a bit dishonest, it also does away with the majority of toxic matches, which is a major problem.

Basically, Bumble is a much softer option because of that. The percentage of female users is about 46%, and people who think objectifying women is a good way to find a girlfriend are much scarcer. This approach may work on apps that promote hookup relationships, but Bumble doesn’t really have this culture.

Premium features

Dating services are known for having extensive premium features, and Bumble is no different. It has a feature called Bumble Boost, which is basically a premium subscription. Without it, you can’t see people who liked your profile. Because it takes both participants to approve the match, you won’t be able to start a conversation without it.

Boost includes two more features: Rematch and Busy Bee. Rematch is a list of people who were rejected by you. You can still access and give them a chance for another day. Busy Bee, however, extends the number of matches you’re given daily. 

It costs 10.35 USD a week to be able to do these three things. It’s cheaper if you decide to buy longer plans: for 3 months, 6 months or forever. Of course, it’s cheaper as in ‘it’s better to buy them than pay up for each individual week’. The maximum amount of money you can spend on Boost is 110 USD, and it’s not even the end of it.

You can also buy a few Super Swipes that will tell your match that you liked them directly instead of waiting around for them to visit the app again and notice you.

How to use Bumble?

Bumble can be accessed through any browser. It works as a dating website, although it’s much better to use the usual way – the dating app. It’s available in almost all countries of the world, both on Android and iOS. Most of the features have been tailored specifically for the use on the app.

It’s also the fastest way to use most of the service’s functionality. You can simply visit the app at any time and spend a few minutes going through the matches. Like a few people you feel are similar to you, then just go about your business and wait for your matches to be either approved by the people you liked, ignored or rejected.

Because the app uses the standard proximity search, you won’t have to go through a hassle of sorting the locations to find the people from your city. That’s a rather outdated approach used mostly by escort services. Most modern dating apps prefer to just skip over most of the sorting and give you a number of possible matches automatically.

It works like this: basically, all the people who match your interests, are currently nearby and meet your age and gender requirements will appear in your match feed. After that, you’ll only need to swipe them away.

Because it works throughout the world, the app supports all alphabets and scriptures, as well as good number of emojis if letters are not enough. The app’s interface also supports most major languages. So, don’t think that Bumble is some British app that only British people can use. It’s for everyone.

It’s actually a very good way to describe this app. No matter who you are, you can tell people about it, and if there are people who have at least something in common with you, you’ll get matched.

Of course, the one block that may be impossible to overcome is the shortage of people. A good thing about Bumble is that its userbase is spread throughout the world, and not concentrated in just a handful of countries. Still, some distant corners may simply not have enough Bumble users for you to work with.

If there are very little people in general, you’ll be given what users there are. It’s not an issue with Bumble however – if anything, on Bumble you’ll be able to find matches wherever you are.

Summary

Bumble is very open to various sorts of matching. Although it’s not really a common thing to look for hookups here, it’s still an option. More users look for soulmates, girlfriends and boyfriends instead of partners specifically. It’s a milder option in this sense. If this sounds like something that would fit you – then come you may consider giving Bumble a try.