Bumble is now rethinking women making the first move on app

Sex & Relationships

By Brooke Steinberg

Ladies first… but possibly not for long.

The CEO of Bumble, the dating app where women are required to message first, is rethinking the app’s signature feature.

Since its founding in 2014, the selling point of Bumble was that “women make the first move” as a mission of female empowerment.

“When members of the opposite sex match on Bumble, women are required to make the first move, shifting old-fashioned power dynamics and encouraging equality from the start,” the website explains.

As the app grew over the years, the concept shifted as it made room for more users.

With LGBTQ+ users, for example, women can message other women first and men can message other men first. In 2022, Bumble expanded the gender identity options and allowed non-binary users to message anyone first as well.

Now, Bumble’s new CEO Lidiane Jones — who took over the position from Bumble’s founder Whitney Wolfe Herd after she stepped down at the start of the year — told Fortune that she’s reconsidering women making the first move entirely.

“It’s obviously been our signature,” Jones told the outlet. “But it feels like a burden for a subset of our customers today.”

“What it means to be an empowered woman today [is] that you feel in control of your experience,” she added.

The reconsideration allegedly didn’t start with Jones, and was something Herd had taken into consideration as well.

Bumble is currently testing different options in New Zealand and Australia for a relaunch that will happen later this year. One option includes providing women with pre-written messages, Fortune reported.

AI-generated first messages are already available on Bumble BFF, the version of Bumble for finding platonic friendships.

Another option is allowing men to make the first move, which would be a big shift from the app’s original decade-long mission.

In February, Bumble announced plans to lay off 350 employees, reducing its headcount by 30% as part of a larger restructuring plan.