If you’re wondering “what is Bumble?” and want to know how to use Bumble, you’ve come to the right place. Tinder once held the coveted top spot when it came to online dating, as it was the first app that introduced throngs of singles to the concept of swiping left or right while looking for potential partners.

But a lot has changed in the online dating world since Tinder’s debut. One of the first apps to offer Tinder some solid competition — while also making a departure from the “hookup culture” that came with dating apps — was Bumble.

So What is Bumble, Exactly?

Bumble or Tinder! Every week one of my clients asks me to explain the differences of these two popular dating apps. 

Like Tinder, Bumble is free, so all you need to do is go to the App store and download it to access it on your phone. Also like Tinder, you can swipe through different profiles to get matches and — once matched — you can start conversations with different singles.

There are two things about Bumble that set it apart from Tinder:

• It has less of a stigma for hookups, meaning that more people who are looking for long-term relationships tend to use Bumble over Tinder.
• Women make the first move on Bumble. Once you match with a woman, she has to initiate the conversation in order for you to message her as well. See my article on how to respond to a woman’s first message on Bumble for more information on how to convert more matches to real life dates. 

Whitney Wolfe is the woman who founded Bumble following her lawsuit against Tinder. Wolfe was one of Tinder’s original founders but left after she reported being sexually harassed by her ex-boyfriend and co-founder Justin Mateen.

She reportedly acquired over one million dollars from the lawsuit and launched Bumble as a female-friendly app aimed at keeping the sleaze out of online dating.

Is Bumble immune from attracting skeezy users or those who are only looking for a one night stand? Absolutely not. Nothing is immune to that. But with Bumble, you’re going to see a greater abundance of people who don’t want to be players or casually hook up and are looking for someone to have a fulfilling partnership with, which is why it’s a great choice for any single looking to find someone to settle down with.

How to Use Bumble: Creating Your Bumble Profile

As I mentioned, downloading this app is super easy and creating a profile is pretty straightforward as well. If you’ve already used dating apps before (here’s an extensive list of free dating dating apps) you shouldn’t have any trouble creating a profile. However, along with being 18 years of age and legally permitted to use the app depending on your country’s laws, you need to have an active Facebook account in order to use Bumble.

Bumble uses your Facebook account to connect with your photos, and you can pick up to six different photos for your account.

You can also connect Bumble to your Instagram account, as well as your Spotify account, which I highly recommend. Why? This provides potential matches with more insights into your personality outside of what you can disclose in a dating app.

A Spotify account can also attract women with similar musical interests as you and that can be a great conversation starter.

Finally, when creating your profile, you fill out your Bumble bio that is up to about 300 words and you’re ready to go. Facebook curates certain things for you like your age and location.

You can get more specific, however, by selecting a desired distance for matches, your height and age range preferences.

When it comes to setting up your preferred distance and age limits, I recommend the following to help you get the most out of the app and to open yourself to more possibilities when it comes to attracting high-value women:

• If you live in a city, increase your distance to about 10-15 miles outside of city limits. If you live in a country or rural environment, expand your distance to about 30-40 miles.
• If you’re not sure what is the best fit for you age-wise, give yourself a wide age range. Usually, an age gap of a decade or an age gap that follows the rule of half your age plus 7 is a pretty good range. But there can be a lot of benefits of dating both younger or older women, as well as those your age. Basically, keep your options open so you can get as many matches and enjoy as many informative dating experiences as possible.

Also, even though you simply need a bio, Facebook connection, and some photos to get started, I really recommend you complete your profile in its entirety. Any field left blank can decrease your chances of matching. Include your work history, where you went to college and the like. This will open more doors for conversation. It also shows that you’re not lazy when it comes to getting things done. Check out my other article on Bumble Profile Tips for Guys if you want more ideas on how to stand out. 

Now, let’s move on to my top tips for using Bumble to ensure that you get the most you possibly can out of this app.

Tip #1: Set a Daily Swiping Goal

The more you swipe right, the more likely you are to get matches and eventually make real-life connections with desirable women. I always recommend that my clients swipe the same number of times each day. For example, you could swipe 50 times a day, which will add up to 350 swipes per week. That means 350 chances to match up with a woman every seven days.

Swiping a set number of times per day helps you track your progress. You’ll be able to see how effective your response rate is and, if your matches are super low, you can use this information to alter your profile.

Having a swiping goal also prevents you from getting burned out. Obviously, you want to be diligent when looking for love, but you don’t want to make your fingers and thumbs go numb by swiping.

Tip #2: Use the Best Pictures Possible

Let’s face it — the first thing a woman is going to pay attention to on your profile is your pictures, so you need to make sure that the pictures you use are selected to showcase the best version of yourself. Here’s a great Bumble profile for men that illustrates the concept of showcasing your best self: Best Bumble Profiles for Men.

You don’t have to be a male model to capture a woman’s attention, but you do need to be strategic with the pictures you post.

First Picture

The first picture should always be a headshot. It should be a forward-facing, close-cropped shot where you are looking at the camera (this shows that you know how to practice good eye contact) and smiling. Make sure that the picture is clear and flattering.

This is a photo where — if you want to really stand out from other guys — you may want to consider hiring a professional photographer. Yes, dating photographers do exist, and their bread and butter come from making sure you look awesome in your online dating pictures so that you can get more matches.

Second Picture

This one should be a full body shot. WORK IT.

Like the headshot, this picture should show you smiling and making good eye contact with the camera. And just because you’re not in person with these potential women doesn’t mean that good body language won’t make a good impression. Use a photo where you are standing confidently in an open stance with your shoulders back. Your mother wanted you to practice proper posture for a reason.

Third Picture

Now that the first two pictures have established exactly who you are and what you look like (there are few things that are worse than feeling like you’re playing a game of “Where’s Waldo?” when it comes to going through someone’s online dating profile), it’s time to include a photo that showcases your social side and lets the ladies know you know how to have a good time and can hang.

Use a social shot that is flattering and includes you and friends/family. Don’t use a picture that was taken at 2 am, when — after five tequila shots —  you and your friends decided you should take as many blurry photos as possible. Use the picture from that night that someone’s girlfriend took before you all started pregaming and were buzzing before the Uber even arrived.

Fourth Picture

The fourth picture should show you engaged in something you’re passionate about, such as fishing, baseball or cooking.

A good shot of you doing something you love will offer some insight into your personality and it can also help you attract women who share your interests.

Fifth Picture

The fifth photo should be of you and an adorable animal because cute animals make everything better.

If you have a dog or cat, you can post of good picture of you and your pet or you can borrow a cute animal/visit a petting zoo/volunteer at an animal shelter and have someone snap a shot of you.

Don’t post a picture of you with an animal that could potentially scare a girl, like a ferret, a rat, any type of insect, or man-eating fish, including sharks and piranhas. I’m not saying that all animals aren’t beautiful or that you shouldn’t show off your exotic pet eventually, but when it comes to the general public, stick with animals that the pretty much everyone agrees are adorable, such as:

• Puppies
• Kittens
• Teacup pigs and other pigs in baby form
• Baby goats
• Lambs
• Penguins
• Prairie dogs
• Lion, tiger or bear cubs
• Ducklings

There are others, but this list should be enough to get you started.

Sixth Picture

Your sixth picture can be whatever you want, as long as it adheres to one of the aforementioned categories, is strategic and flattering. 

If you need help choosing photos for your Bumble profile, try uploading them on PhotoFeeler.com. This is a great site where you can get unbiased feedback of all of your photos.

Tip #3: Craft a Great Bio

It’s not all about looks when it comes to figuring out how to use Bumble. You have a maximum of 300 words for your bio, but don’t feel like you need to use all 300 unless you truly have 300 words’ worth of compelling, humorous and appealing things to say. A bio can make or break you in the online dating world when it comes to getting girls to swipe right and, YES, we read the bios and taglines before swiping.

With your bio, you need to have something catchy to say out of the gate to grab a woman’s attention and making her want to get to know you better.

When it comes to creating the perfect bio, do:

• Use humor to your advantage
• Be positive and upbeat
• Mention your interests
• Focus on what makes you unique and awesome instead of putting something generic
• Pepper in emojis where appropriate

And here are some things you definitely don’t want to do when it comes to creating a perfect bio:

• Be mean or super sarcastic
• Be negative
• Use a plethora of emojis for no real reason
• Talk about sex or how big your privates are
• Curse
• Say generic things like “I like food,” “I like sports,” “I love everyone”

Tip #4: Be Confident and Direct When Messaging a Woman

When you are responding to woman’s first message on Bumble, you want to showcase yourself as a confident, assertive man in order to keep the conversation going, assess if there could be potential there, and set up a date for the both of you to meet offline in order to see if there is chemistry IRL.

Women like a man who is direct because it indicates good self-esteem, security, and honesty. When a man is overly agreeable, he can come off as suspicious. So when you are responding to that first message:

• Avoid giving generic, lame responses like a simple “hi,” “hey,” or “how’s it going?”
• Use wit
• Playfully tease her if she gives you a generic or lame opening message. If she just gives a “Hey,” you can put something like “Try again :)” or if she puts in something where she clearly copied a previous message to a different guy and lazily sent it to you, you can also put something playful — but not mean — like, “Is that the best copy and paste job you can do? ;)”

Most importantly, you need to not allow the messages to go on and on and on and — well, you get the idea. When you take too long to set up concrete plans for a date, the conversation will inevitably desolve and you won’t make it to a first date, let alone any steps toward finding a long-term, compatible partner.

Allow for a few messages of banter and then get straight to asking her out. Create a compelling date plan that appeals to the interests she has listed in her profile (or that you have garnered from your brief back and forth) and make sure that you have a specific time for the date, day of the week that the date will be taking place and a location — otherwise known as what we here at EmLovz refer to as a TDL.

Tip #5: Don’t Limit Yourself to Bumble

Bumble is a great app to add to your arsenal, but it shouldn’t be the only thing you use. I always recommend that my clients download at least a few apps (Hinge, Coffee Meets Bagel, and Tinder) to up their chances of matching and meeting potential partners and that they should use different methods to meet women as well, including joining adult sports leagues, meeting women through mutual friends and trying things like speed dating events.

Using different methods to meet women and going out on dates with more than one woman at a time is part of a strategy called MegaDating.

MegaDating is a dating process that involves going out with several women at the same time in order to diffuse energy by keeping your social calendar full. When you MegaDate, you improve your dating and approach game by getting tons of practice. This strategy also helps you avoid settling for the mediocre because you’ll find that there truly are plenty of fish in the sea.

I used this dating strategy during my 100-date experiment. It helped me find a compatible, long-term partner and it can do the same for you!

What is Bumble How to Use Bumble Wrap-up

Want to get more out of Bumble, online dating and the dating world in general? I’m here to help you via Skype. 

Head over to my calendar and book a new client 1-on-1 Skype session with me today. During our 50-minute session, we will discuss your dating roadblocks, see if there is anything specific that might be holding you back, and come up with an action plan to help you crush your goals. We’ll also determine if my 3 month coaching program could be a fit for you.

Hiring a dating coach and working with them 1-on-1 over a course of 3 months is the quickest way to jumpstart your dating life.