Because younger users are changing how they date, Bumble is investing more money into new AI features to stay current
On Monday, at Goldman Sachs’ annual technology conference, Lidiane Jones, CEO of Bumble, shared more information about the app’s future AI features. These include a photo selection tool and features to help with conversations and profile creation.
Jones had already hinted at Bumble’s most recent earnings report features.
During a call with investors, she said, “We will also add new AI-driven features, such as an AI-assisted photo picker to make creating a profile easier and conversation support that will help our customers feel more confident in being themselves.” We’re excited about how AI will help us give our customers more value at every stage of the dating process, from making profiles to finding matches to getting them to interact with each other and our core matching models.
The new AI-powered features will be added to the app this winter.
Tinder launched its AI-powered “Photo Selector” feature this summer, which lets users choose from a selection of selfies from their camera roll. Bumble’s photo picker tool will make it more competitive with Tinder. Tinder says it currently has 9.6 million paying users, while Bumble only has 2.8 million as of Q2 2024.
According to what Jones said yesterday, the company is also working on more tools to help with profile building, but it didn’t say more specifics.
“We want to keep the bar high for making a profile, but we want to make it easier for people to do so.” Users worry a lot when they make profiles. That will go as smoothly as possible. “Creating a profile is a big one,” Jones said at the conference.
When people make profiles, they have to do more than upload photos. They must also write interesting bios and questions to get possible matches interested. It’s unclear how Bumble plans to use AI to power this experience. We asked Bumble for a response, but they didn’t answer.
If Bumble wants to add more AI profile creation features, it might copy a feature from Tinder’s list of planned future products. Mark Van Ryswyk, the CPO of Tinder, once talked about the idea of writing bios for dating accounts with generative AI.
Also, it seems like a no-brainer for Bumble to use AI to get singles more creative with their first words. Last year, the company released an AI-generated icebreaker tool for Bumble for Friends, its product for making friends, so it would make sense for the dating app to do the same. Users can send messages to others based on their profile with the “icebreaker” tool.
Jones said, “[Another] big reason is that customers are happier and more successful, and they have good conversations with each other.” We want to make it easier for people to start healthy talks.
In addition to the new AI features mentioned, Bumble may add more AI features in the future. In the past, Whitney Wolfe Herd, the founder of Bumble, talked about how she thinks online dating could work with AI “dating concierges” or helpers going on many dates for a user.
On the other hand, Bumble has had safety tools for a few years now that use AI. For example, its “Deception Detector” tool finds and eliminates fake accounts, spammers, and scammers. Its “Private Detector” feature blurs naked photos automatically. The company recently added a feature that lets members report profiles if they think AI made the pictures and videos.
Jones said again at the conference that Bumble is not adding any new paid features yet because it is still working to improve the free experience. This includes making “Opening Moves” bigger, adding more interest filters, and letting users change the chat timer (which gives them 24 hours to send a message right now). It also means making the matching system better.
The business also has plans for Geneva, a community platform it just bought and is getting ready to reboot in late fall.
