Australian members: 3 million.
Demographic: The age range on Bumble is 18-80.
Angle: designed to “disrupt traditional gender roles”, women must make the first move in sending a message for heterosexual matches. (Either person can initiate contact for same-sex matches.)
Unique features: Bumble isn’t just for dating – the app also includes Bumble BFF (for platonic friendships) and Bumble Bizz (business networking), making it a kind of Facebook/Tinder/LinkedIn hybrid.
Matching: Bumble uses your GPS location to find people in your area who fit your age criteria. If you swipe right on someone’s profile and they swipe right on yours, it’s a match and you’ll both be notified.
“The Bumble app is free and I have had the most dates with this app. It’s an easy format and given the female makes contact first, you can eliminate unwanted attention.” – Kate*, 44.
How much does Bumble cost?
The Bumble app itself is free to download, but you can pay to access a few premium features.
Bumble Boost: $3.99 for a one-day subscription or $13.99 for a one-week subscription. Monthly prices range from $17.80 to $30.99 depending on the length of subscription. If you’re a really die-hard dater, you can even buy a lifetime subscription for $189.99. Boost gives users access to premium features such as unlimited search filters, the option to rematch with expired users and unlimited Extends, which is the option to extend the 24-hour window to start a conversation by another 24 hours. You also get access to your Beeline – a queue that shows you everyone who’s already liked your profile.
Bumble coins: $4.99 for two, or $10.99 for five, $29.99 for 15 or $52.99 for 30. These allow you to access SuperSwipe, which lets you tell a potential match you’re confidently interested in them, and Spotlight, which pushes you to the front of the match queue for 30 minutes.
Privacy
To sign up, you’ll need to use either your Facebook account or your phone number, so if you’re not comfortable using either of these, give Bumble a miss.
If you sign up using your mobile phone number, you may receive promotional SMS messages and survey requests from Bumble.
Bumble is a US company, so your info will be sent to and used in the United States, regardless of where you live, and the storage of your personal data may not be subject to the same protections as those stipulated by Australian law. They may also share your information with third parties.
If you sign up using Facebook, Bumble users can access and share your Facebook information with people who aren’t Bumble users (even if you haven’t shared it directly to Bumble).
“When using Bumble, you should assume that anything you post or submit on the app may be publicly-viewable and accessible, both by users of the app and non-users of the app,” the Bumble privacy policy warns. “We want our Bumblers to be careful about posting information that will eventually be made public.”
Safety
You can verify your profile by taking a selfie mimicking one of 100 random photo poses. A Bumble team member reviews the photo and verifies or rejects your verification.
Pricing issues
You can’t access pricing for the premium features until you’ve created an account (and given Bumble access to your Facebook account or phone number). Subscriptions also automatically renew unless you’ve turned auto-renew off at least 24 hours before the end of the current period.