Why Bumble now allows men to message first

As of today, anyone can send the first message on Bumble.

It’s a total rewrite for the dating app where “women make the first move.” Another change is also here: Instead of having 24 hours for the message recipient to respond to that first message, they now have 72 hours.

This update is happening because of user insights and feedback, according to a press release shared with Mashable. Nearly two-thirds (66 percent) of women surveyed by the app say they actually prefer men to send the first message, according to a survey of over 2,200 women on Bumble in the U.S. in Aug. 2024. Many said it’d make dating feel less pressured.

Gen Z women said women making the first move remains “an empowering option,” but also appreciate the flexibility of men starting the conversation, in research commissioned by Bumble between Feb. and March 2025, of 2,000 singles aged 18-35 who were actively using dating apps. That research also found that nearly two-thirds of both men and women say they feel more confident when they have a choice of when and how a conversation begins.

Bumble’s “women make the first move” is no more

“We built Bumble around the belief that when you make dating better for women, you make it better for everyone and that remains true today. While women making the first move was a radical idea, being women-first was never about prescribing just one way to connect. It was about designing an experience with women’s needs in mind to create better outcomes for everyone,” founder and CEO Whitney Wolfe Herd commented in the press release.

“Today, our community is asking for more flexibility, less pressure, and more opportunities to create real, meaningful connections and that is what this new experience provides. This evolution isn’t a departure from our founding vision, but the realization of it.”

The radical change follows a trend that’s been happening on Bumble for some time. Wolfe Herd founded Bumble in 2014, and a lot has changed in the 12 years since in terms of gender and dating norms. In 2022, Bumble decided that nonbinary users can message first after users expressed discomfort with not being able to on social media.

Then, in 2024, Bumble launched Opening Moves, a way for men to technically message first by responding to a prompt. The change was reportedly made due to dating app fatigue, an issue apps have been dealing with for years now.

According to initial tests of the latest change (in Canada between June and July 2026), 92 percent of women said they still felt in control of their dating experience. And more than half of the surveyed users agreed that lengthening the reply window improved their experience on the app.

More changes are coming to Bumble

Wolfe Herd announced this shift at the company’s earnings call last week — and it’s not the only change coming. Bumble will soon launch a standalone app called Plans for curating IRL events and matching with attendees afterward. At the same time as Bumble is leaning more into in-person events, it’s also leaning more into AI, as the AI dating assistant, Bee, is also forthcoming.

Bumble made a lot of buzz earlier this year when Wolfe Herd announced that the app is killing the swipe feature, but she said last week that she’s keeping what’s next under wraps. This new chat initiation will remain as part of the reimagined Bumble experience, a spokesperson told Mashable.

The company’s revenue and paying users have been declining year-over-year and it’s reportedly considering a sale, so this is likely a push to reverse that trend. But will singles make a beeline for Bumble now that its signature feature is retired?