Bumble announced on Thursday that it’s adding a series of AI-driven features intended to help turn matches into lasting connections, including those that offer feedback and guidance on users’ bios, photos, and prompts.
The dating app’s new AI-suggested profile guidance tool will roll out globally and give “personalized, actionable feedback” on users’ bios and prompts. For users in the U.S., the profile guidance feature can be augmented with an AI photo feedback tool, which can “help you choose the best photos and show up as your most authentic self.”
According to Bumble’s blog post explaining these features, it doesn’t seem like the insights from these AI tools are particularly groundbreaking — for example, Bumble says that its AI photo tool might encourage you to ditch photos where you’re wearing sunglasses that cover your face, and add a wider variety of photos, like ones taken outdoors or with friends. It’s advice you could’ve 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 conversation stalls, a user can signal that they are open to meeting in person, which the company says is “a simple way to signal that they’re ready to connect offline.”
Of course, another way for people to “signal that they’re ready to connect offline” is to literally ask someone on a date. But realistically, it doesn’t seem like users are taking the plunge, so having an in-app way to indicate interest may motivate some potential couples to move their conversation IRL.
“With Suggest a Date, we’re creating a clear expression of intent and giving members a way to bypass the traditional back-and-forth and move toward meeting in real life,” Bumble CTO Vivek Sagi said in a statement. “When we reduce friction at the moments that matter most, we help people connect with clarity and confidence, and increase the likelihood of meaningful relationships forming offline.”
Bumble and other popular dating apps, like Match Group’s Tinder and Hinge, have all embraced AI-powered features in recent months. For instance, in December, Hinge introduced a tool to help generate more interesting conversation starters than “How are you?”
Tinder may take things a step further. In Australia, Tinder is piloting a tool called Chemistry, which asks users to provide the app with access to their camera roll, which is a concerning amount of data to feed into an AI tool. Based on a user’s camera roll and answers to a series of questions, the AI can learn more about someone’s interests and personality to supposedly reduce “swipe fatigue” and suggest better matches.
Meta’s Facebook Dating tool does something similar — in October, it launched a feature that asks to use its AI on photos in your camera roll that you haven’t yet shared in order to suggest AI edits.
As these companies try to come up with new ways to keep users happy, some young people have thrown in the towel on online dating altogether, instead seeking more real-world experiences that are not intermediated by an app.
