Overview
- Bumble announced Tuesday that it has dropped its long-standing rule requiring women to send the first message in heterosexual matches and now allows either person to initiate conversation.
- The app also extended the reply window from 24 hours to 72 hours to reduce expired matches and give people more time to respond.
- Bumble cited user surveys and tests in Canada, including a company survey finding 66% of women prefer men send the first message, as the basis for the global rollout.
- The move follows recent quarterly results showing falling revenue and a decline in paying users and comes alongside other product experiments such as swipe-free concepts, AI tools, and in-person events.
- Users will see prompts that discourage one-word openers and encourage thoughtful first messages, a change designed to lower pressure on matches and that could raise initiation and mutual conversations if tests scale.