Bumble was announced on Thursday that it is adding a series of AI-based features intended to help turn matches into lasting connections, including ones that offer feedback and guidance on users’ bios, photos and messages.
The dating app’s new AI-recommended profile guidance tool will roll out globally and provide “personalised, actionable feedback” on users’ bios and messages. For users in the US, the profile guidance feature can be augmented with an AI photo feedback tool that can “help you choose the best photos and come across as your most authentic self.”
According to Bumble’s blog post explaining these features, it doesn’t appear that the information from these AI tools is particularly groundbreaking — for example, Bumble says the AI photo tool can encourage you to ditch photos where you’re wearing sunglasses that cover your face and add a wider variety of photos, such as those taken outdoors or with friends. It’s a tip you could have easily gotten from a friend 10 years ago, but it’s still new information to many users.
In Canada, Bumble is testing another non-AI feature called “Suggest a Date.” When a chat stops, a user can signal they’re open to meeting in person, which the company says is “a simple way to signal they’re ready to connect offline.”
Of course, another way for people to “signal that they’re ready to hook up offline” is to literally ask someone out on a date. But realistically, it doesn’t seem like users are taking the plunge, so having an in-app way to express interest might entice some potential mates to move their chat IRL.
“With Suggest a Date, we’re creating a clear expression of intent and giving members a way to skip the traditional back-and-forth and move toward meeting in real life,” Bumble CTO Vivek Sagi said in a statement. “When we reduce friction in the moments that matter most, we help people connect with clarity and confidence and increase the likelihood that meaningful relationships will form offline.”
Bumble and other popular dating apps like Tinder and Match Group’s Hinge have all embraced AI-powered features in recent months. For example, in December, Hinge introduced a tool to help create more engaging conversation starters than “How are you?”
Tinder can take things a step further. In Australia, Tinder is piloting a tool called Chemistry, which asks users to give the app access to their camera roll, which is an alarming amount of data to feed into an AI tool. Based on a user’s camera roll and answers to a series of questions, AI can learn more about someone’s interests and personality to supposedly reduce “swipe fatigue” and suggest better matches.
Facebook dating tool Meta does something similar — in October, it launched a feature that asks its AI to use photos in your camera roll that you haven’t shared yet to recommend AI edits.
As these companies try to find new ways to keep users happy, some young people have thrown in the towel on online dating, instead looking for more real world experiences that are not mediated by an application.
