Find new friends fast with the new Bumble BFF
Finding a soulmate is notoriously difficult. The fact that there are countless dating apps and websites reflects this. Once you’re an adult, though, is it any easier to find platonic friends? A common complaint among working adults is that they struggle to connect with other like-minded people. Beyond work and whatever pastimes you enjoy, opportunities to make new friends are rare. Enter Bumble BFF. An expanded feature that recently debuted on the wildly popular Bumble dating app, Bumble BFF uses sophisticated algorithms not to assess romantic compatibility but to assess friendship compatibility. The brainchild of Whitney Wolfe, founder and CEO of Bumble and co-founder of Tinder, Bumble BFF is poised to revolutionize the way in which women connect.
Struggling to Find Friends? Try Bumble BFF
Today’s busy working women are truly doing it all. From raising families to socializing to working full time, they rarely have time to catch their breath–let alone to go hunting for friendships. As with dating, the odds of randomly meeting people with whom you can have a good platonic friendship are exceedingly slim. That’s especially true when there’s barely enough time in the day as it is. Bumble BFF does for friendships what Bumble does for romantic relationships: It makes them happen more easily.
Brought to You by User Demand
It’s easy to assume that a new feature like this is just a way for Bumble to get some media attention. In reality, though, Bumble BFF exists because so many people asked for it. Not long after launching Bumble, Whitney Wolfe and her team noticed that many women were switching over to view profiles for other women. At the same time, many users outright asked for a feature that allowed them to look for friends. As she’s done throughout her career, the CEO listened to her customers. The result is Bumble BFF.
How it Works
If you have ever used Tinder or Bumble, you’ll have no trouble understanding how Bumble BFF works. First, this is not a separate app. Rather, it’s an extension, or additional feature, that is now included with Bumble. In the future, the company plans to allow users to create separate profiles for dating and for friendship. For now, however, the same profile is shown in both settings. While logged into the app, users can toggle between Bumble BFF and the regular dating Bumble with the tap of the screen.
Like Tinder and regular Bumble, Bumble BFF incorporates a swiping system to generate matches. Its powerful algorithms first determine a list of users with whom you might be compatible with as friends. Much of this information is pulled from Facebook, so make sure you “like” plenty of different things. Next, different potential matches’ profiles appear on the screen. If you feel like a friendship might be there, swipe right. The profile is then saved. If that user also swipes right, the two of you have 24 hours to start chatting. When you run across a profile that you’re not interested, just swipe left to dismiss it.
As with the Bumble app, you can search for BFFs in your immediate area by using location services on your mobile device. Handily, you can also manually select other cities. This is perfect for women who are relocating, for instance, and who are looking for friends in their new cities. It’s also great for women who travel a lot for business, as it’s a quick, easy way to find someone to meet up with when bored in a strange town. The great thing is that you don’t have to be single to use this feature; you just have to be looking for friends.
Will it Be a Success?
Given that Bumble BFF came about largely due to user demand, it’s safe to say that a receptive audience already exists. The fact that it is backed up by the wildly popular Bumble app also gives it a lot of potential. The bottom line is that not everyone who uses an app like Bumble is out there looking for romance. Some folks just want platonic friends, and now there is a way to find them more easily and effectively.
Just as countless new relationships have been forged through Bumble, Bumble BFF is sure to bring together many people who will go on to have great friendships. At the same time, it’s just as useful for once-off meetups when traveling and bored. With so much versatility, there’s little doubt that Bumble BFF will be a huge hit, just like so many of Whitney Wolfe’s other endeavors.