Bumble is a popular dating app that works similarly to apps like Tinder — you're presented with pictures of other people on the app, and then swipe right on people you're interested in, or swipe left to skip them.
How Bumble chats work for men
However, for men, there is one major difference: If you're a man that's matched with a woman, you can't send her a message first. Instead, the woman needs to send the first message. In a same-sex match, though, either person can initiate a conversation.
How Bumble's matching algorithm works
Bumble doesn't publish much about how its algorithm works, but it's evident that it doesn't learn your preferences to customize the profiles it shows you based on previous swipes or matches.
Instead, the app prioritizes profiles who have received a lot of right-swipes, and will try to show people who have swiped right on you to make potential matches easier to discover.
As a general rule, you shouldn't swipe right on a large number of profiles in a short period of time. It indicates that you're either insincere or a bot, and the app will make it harder for other users to discover you.
Bumble matches are never one-sided — both people need to swipe right on one another for a match to occur. Only after that can two people start a conversation.
How Bumble matches work on the conversation page
Once you've made a match — both you and the other person have swiped right on each other — it appears at the top of your Conversations page (which you can find by tapping the chat icon at the bottom-right of the Bumble screen).
The top of the page is your match queue, which shows matches and, if you've upgraded to Bumble Premium, your "Beeline." Ordinary matches have a yellow circle, while the Beeline is contained in a green circle.
The Beeline is a list of profiles who have swiped right on you but you haven't swiped right on yet. This obviously makes it easier to find a match. To view the potential matches on your Beeline, you have to upgrade to Bumble Premium, which you can do on a weekly basis or for longer subscription periods.
Because matches ordinarily expire after 24 hours, Bumble shows each match's countdown by making the circle fade, and organizing the matches expiring soonest on the left.
Again, men on Bumble can't initiate a conversation in a heterosexual match; the woman has to send the initial message. Non-binary users and users in same-sex matches can send the first message, too.
But once both parties send a message, the 24-hour timer goes away and there are no time limits on how the conversation progresses.
