Humans are social creatures and finding friends is important. Sadly, though, finding friends is pretty hard for me, especially amidst a pandemic. I just don’t vibe with everyone and talking to strangers feels harder nowadays because I’ve gotten a bit out of practice. So, instead of talking up strangers in my classes who will then proceed to ignore me… I’ve turned to Bumble BFF.
At its core, Bumble is a dating app, actually, that tries to empower women by having them make the first move. If that doesn’t happen within 24 hours, the match gets disbanded. Oh well. Bumble also has two other “modes” available: Bumble Bizz, for business contacts, as well as Bumble BFF to make friends and find community. Every mode makes use of “swiping”, which you may know from OkCupid or Tinder – swipe left if you dislike someone and right if you like them. If you both like each other, it’s a match! You can also fill out prompts, add a bio, add pictures, and link your Instagram & Spotify accounts to give people a better impression of you. Also, you can filter out certain people and look for individuals looking for the same thing as you or living close by, etc. All in all, it’s a dating app with different modes and I’ll essentially talk about Bumble BFF for the most part here, although most of this also applies to the dating mode of Bumble.
Right from the get-go, I’d like to say that I like the idea behind Bumble although I dislike certain factors on the app. As always, the userbase may be different from area to area. There are obviously areas where nobody may use Bumble – but in my city, the userbase seems to be pretty vast and filled with a lot of queer individuals, too, which is a neat thing in my opinion. On Bumble BFF, I got to meet a bunch of people with similar tastes in music so far that also live nearby. I still gotta meet them in person though but so far we’ve been chatting a lot and I’ve been enjoying most of these conversations quite a bit.
Something I don’t like, however, is that some people will match with you in BFF with the intention of fucking or dating you – even though that’s not what you’re looking for. In those cases, you say no and report them or you just don’t. I guess that’s the issue with online dating as well… but at least, Bumble has a feature where you can verify your account by sending in pictures. The verification can be seen on your profile, too, so that kind of gets rid of the danger of catfishes, although a lot of people don’t necessarily do it.
Overall, Bumble BFF is a neat concept but it really depends on who you match with. I noticed that I can’t work with most people on there as they just don’t fill out a profile. Others that do, however, have proven to be quite kind and pretty cool. It’s a weird thing to look for friends on a dating app but the idea is neat. And what’s even better is that you can set up a cause that Bumble will donate for whenever you match with someone and make the first move. They essentially will support a charity and you don’t even need to do anything apart from using the app.
You can use the app for free, btw, but there are certain limitations to the usage, obviously. There are special perks that come with Bumble Premium, like unlimited swipes, super-swipes, a boost in discoverability, and the option to see who swiped right on you for easier matches. You can also extend matches beyond the 24-hour mark for money, set up advanced filters, “backtrack” (aka swipe right on someone that you accidentally swiped left), activate “travel mode”, and more for a relatively cheap subscription price. Naturally, Bumble needs to earn money as well, so I feel like that’s a good model overall. As someone who uses the app for free, I can’t just swipe right on everyone (which is something that a lot of people do) – eventually, the matches just run out and refill after a day or two. I think it works fine even if you don’t pay money for it but if I were single, I’d consider getting the subscription for myself. After all, “beelining” for people that swiped right on you is a guaranteed match, right? Same with unlimited swipes, advanced filters, boosts, and all of that.
Aesthetically, Bumble is quite pleasing, rocking that yellow and white look. Because of its branding and the colour scheme, you’ll have to bear with a lot of bee puns, though, which I personally love but I could see how it could lead to some groans here and there. Something I disliked about the app is the fact that people may just not respond or that you may end up finding people that are looking for something sexual, even in BFF… but hey, just unmatch/report and move on, I guess? Similarly, you may encounter some pretty entitled people in the dating mode. At least, I did when I installed it as a Single three years ago… but most people are pretty cool.
To sum it all up, Bumble has a neat concept, looks nice, works well, and includes a bunch of bee puns that you don’t have to pay for. The people are pretty cool on there and it’s an interesting concept to have women make the first move, although it doesn’t make much of a difference when you’re looking at same-sex individuals or for friends, I guess. I’d recommend trying it out – I mean it’s free, right?
Cheers!
This post was originally written by Dan Dicere from Indiecator.
If you see this article anywhere else other than Indiecator.org… then this article has been stolen. Please let me know of this via E-Mail. Other than that, feel free to stop by my Twitch streams!
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