Bumble relaunches app with a new tool to relieve the ‘burden’ of women making the first move

Good morning, Broadsheet readers! Paramount CEO is out in latest twist to Shari Redstone's merger aspirations, South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem is under fire for killing her puppy, and Bumble reveals its next chapter. Have a terrific Tuesday!

- Swipe right. Last week, Bumble wiped clean its Instagram account. Like a pop star entering a new era, the dating app was setting a blank slate before revealing its next chapter.

CEO Lidiane Jones, who took over from founder Whitney Wolfe Herd at the beginning of this year, told me last month that she was rethinking Bumble's longtime signature feature, that women "make the first move" in heterosexual pairings on the app. Intended as empowerment, in practice the in-app requirement that women always send the first message to men felt to some women like "a burden," she said.

Jones, who was previously the CEO of Salesforce-owned Slack, joined Bumble as dating apps struggled with a changing world. In the mid-2010s, online dating went from embarrassing to status quo for millennials with the rise of Tinder and then Bumble. Today, online dating seems to have circled back to cringe for some Gen Zers. The rising generation of daters—a crucial market for these businesses as millennials marry and exit the dating scene—seek offline connections, connect on non-dating platforms like Instagram and TikTok, and are less likely to pay for dating apps. Bumble, in particular, was synonymous with millennial women, who gravitated to its early marketing that featured taglines like "Be the CEO your parents always wanted you to marry." And after a decade of swiping, many daters are fatigued by the apps; 70% of women surveyed by Bumble said they experienced dating app burnout.

So, it was time for a refresh. Announced this morning, Bumble has launched a new version of the app. In this iteration of Bumble, women are able to pre-select "opening moves" that they can send to every match. An automatic question like "What's your Roman Empire?" (TikTok shorthand for something you're obsessed with) relieves some pressure in the moment of a match. Users can choose one of Bumble's questions or write their own. Previously, women would send the first message and men would have 24 hours to respond before the match expired. Now men are able to respond to the opening prompt, and then women have 24 hours to choose whether to continue, giving women more information about their match before completely unlocking the conversation.

Bumble considered allowing men to make the first move on the app, but ultimately Jones landed on the "opening moves" middle ground. "This was where it felt right for our customers," Jones told reporters in New York yesterday. Women like "being in control of the experience" on Bumble, she said.

To accompany the new product, Bumble also refreshed its brand, as seen in its wiped Instagram. A new campaign developed by its in-house creative team has more edgy taglines like "you can stop putting your retainer in at 7pm on a Friday" and "you know full well a vow of celibacy is not the answer."

As Bumble approaches its 10-year anniversary and as its stock continues to trade about 80% below its 2021 IPO high, the hope is that a product and brand refresh will "bring that spark back" to Bumble and online dating. "You can expect more innovation from us in easing how you express your true self," Jones says.

Emma Hinchliffe
emma.hinchliffe@fortune.com

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