Bumble Offering New Features for Paid Users Only

Grammio

Bumble has been around since December 2014 and in all that time they haven't had any sort of paid distinction. The app doesn't bother you with ads and the only brand they've worked with was Spotify and even then only on a specific feature. Now Bumble is finally trying to monetise their app with three new features users can pay for each month.

Now none of these features are all that special but they are practical if you're busy, which a lot of Bumble users may be. These features are named Rematch, Beeline and Busy Bee. Out of these additions, Rematch is the most obvious feature as it does exactly what it says on the tin and allows you to rematch with someone. If you didn't get to someone within the 24 hours you have to match or message them, then they go into a queue and you can try again.

The next feature is Beeline which creates a queue for you out of users who have already liked you. This means you don't have to swipe and then wait to see if they liked you back. Instead, you can go through the list and just tap yes if you want to match with them. This might take away some of the fun but it also takes away some of the stress, especially if you're busy month to month.

The final addition is Busy Bee, which allows you to extend the 24-hour window you have to contact people and instead gives you 48 hours. Previously, this feature was only for male users but with the monetisation, this has been extended to female users too. Only if you're willing to pay $9.99 a month however. It seems weird that a female-oriented app like Bumble would have features that gave their male users more of an opportunity for free but that's just how it is right now.

If you don't want to pay any money to Bumble then you're not going to be losing out. The paywall won't be blocking off any features that were free previously so you'll be able to continue to use the app in the exact same way as you did before. Bumble is an interesting dating app, one that's popular enough and has been free for so long. It's difficult to say whether this monetisation will help or hinder the app but all we can do is hope that it works out for them.