Since its inception in 2014, dating app Bumble‘s schtick was that women users “make the first move” — meaning, only women users can message male matches first, and within 24 hours of matching at that. Over the years, however, the concept has somewhat eroded.
It was always slippery for LGBTQ users, for example. Women can obviously message other women first, while men messaging other men would have to message first, too. Then in 2022, Bumble added more gender options which raised the question: Can nonbinary people message first, or only women? It turned out that Bumble allowed nonbinary users to message first.
Now, two years later, Bumble’s new CEO Lidiane Jones told Fortune that she’s reconsidering women making the first move on the app. Jones took over as CEO from Bumble’s founder Whitney Wolfe Herd, who stepped down at the start of the year.
Women messaging matches first has “obviously been our signature,” Jones told Fortune, “but it feels like a burden for a subset of our customers today.”
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Apparently, this reconsideration began under Wolfe Herd, and Bumble is now testing different options for a relaunch later this year. One option, according to Fortune, is giving women pre-written messages; AI-generated icebreakers are already on Bumble for Friends, the platonic version of Bumble. Another option is allowing men to message first.
If Bumble scraps “women making the first move,” it’ll be a stark change for the decade-old app — but some users may see it as a relief.
Mashable has reached out to Bumble for comment.
