Bumble teases a swipe-free future as it doubles down on IRL meetups

Tinder isn’t the only major dating app turning away from the swipe and toward real-world events to attract Gen Z users who’ve grown tired of traditional online dating. On Wednesday, Bumble touted the early success of its newest app, Plans, designed to connect people “IRL” in low-pressure group settings, and spoke of what comes next for Bumble’s flagship app after the “swipe” is dead.

On its second-quarter earnings call with investors, Bumble CEO Whitney Wolfe Herd said Plans showed “promising results” in early tests over the past few months, and the company would “lean more into real-life experiences” going forward.

Combined with Tinder’s news this week that it, too, is doubling down on in-person events, it’s clear there’s a major shift happening in online dating. Simply put, the swipe era is coming to an end.

“I am a firm believer that the future of meeting people in groups will become more important. People love to come together in groups and see who they naturally share chemistry with once they have met,” Wolfe Herd told analysts on the call. “Group socializing is a real part of how Gen Z prefers to meet, and we believe Bumble represents a natural bridge from meeting to socializing to then dating.”

The company first experimented with real-world, platonic connections with Bumble BFF, an app for making friends, which has shown some traction with Gen Z women.

With Plans, however, the idea is to give young people a way to meet up with others in their community to develop friendships over small group drinks and dinners at local spots, the company said when announcing the app last month. These meetups could later lead to deeper friendships or romantic connections, Bumble believes. By not being primarily focused on dating, it can take the pressure off these first-time encounters.

In addition, users on Plans can continue their chats on Bumble’s app without having to swipe or give out their phone number. In other words, Bumble is promoting “no swiping” as a plus here, suggesting that this format for finding matches is no longer desired among younger users.

Wolfe Herd also teased that Bumble is working on a new interaction model to replace the swipe entirely.

“The core idea is a shift away from optimizing for swipe speed and velocity towards something more intentional, fewer, better, more considered signals,” she said, saying the shift to the “swipe-free” model would happen gradually so as not to disrupt the ecosystem.

“What will replace the swipe? I will be keeping under wraps a bit longer for competitive purposes, but it is designed to generate more immediate interactions and, most importantly, better outcomes, mimicking real life and eliminating the friction and delay that exists in [the] current dating app model,” she added.

The company also plans to leverage more AI tools under the hood to help deliver improved results, but cautioned this would not mean Bumble was becoming an “AI-driven experience.”

Though Bumble beat on earnings in Q2, it’s still in a turnaround phase. The company’s revenue was down ​15.2% to $210.5 ⁠million year-over-year, and its stock suffered over its Q3 forecast, which shows a decline in paying customers.

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