Features

Bumble Gender Options

Image: Bumble

In response to recent criticisms from its non-binary users, Bumble has announced changes to its app to create a better, more inclusive experience.

According to NBC News, Bumble has now updated its gender preference options to include non-binary as its own category for dating profiles. When a user chooses, they are prompted to “add more.” For example, a user identifying as a woman can choose from trans, intersex woman, transfeminine and cis woman, among others. Men can choose from intersex man, trans man, transmasculine, etc. If a user doesn’t identify with any descriptor on the list, they can add their own. Nonbinary users can choose from numerous descriptors, including bigender, genderfluid, gender questioning, and pangender among others.

Prior to this change, Bumble tested a pilot feature where users could choose non-binary as an option for gender preference, but this option was listed under the “male” and female” gender options, one of which had to be selected first.

Match Group has acquired The League, a dating app known for its exclusivity because you have to apply to join.

The news about the members-only dating app was disclosed by a Tinder spokesperson to Tech Crunch. The League has become popular among ambitious, career-focused people looking for a more exclusive dating app experience, and as a result the app grew a long waiting list with people vying for a place. The terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Match Group’s new CEO Bernard Kim sent an email to employees, sharing the news: “We have just closed our acquisition of The League, a premium, niche dating app with a curated member base focused on matching career-oriented users looking for a serious relationship,” Kim wrote.

Match Group is bringing the free background checks feature on Tinder to two more of its dating apps: Match (its signature app) and Stir, an app geared toward single parents.

The feature allows users two free background checks on matches, and after that there’s a cost. Right now, premium users on Tinder get four free background checks, and the same will apply for users of Stir and Match, according to The Verge.

The background checks feature was implemented in partnership with security service Garbo which actually runs the background checks. According to The Verge, when a user is chatting with someone and suggests meeting, a box pops up to ask if they want to do a background check. If they tap on the link, they see some safety tips before being transferred to the Garbo platform where the report is accessed.

Metaverse dating apps have become popular among singles in China, and now one of the most popular - Soul - intends to go public in the Hong Kong market. It is backed by tech giant Tencent, with Bank of America Merrill Lynch and CICC serving as co-sponsors.

Soul lets users create and use avatars (often resembling Japanese anime) to interact over the app, and rivals TikTok for time spent engaging on the app – an average of about 40 minutes per user, according to South China Morning Post. It currently has over 32 million users.

Downloads and engagement have grown in part due to recurring lockdowns across the country from Covid-19 outbreaks. Between 2019 and 2021, Soul’s monthly active users went from 11.5 million to 31.6 million, according to parent company Soulgate.

Since Tinder was banned in Pakistan, young singles are flocking to private Facebook groups to meet others to date, even though Facebook Dating is not available in the country.

One of the most popular Facebook groups is Two Rings, a volunteer-run matchmaking group that does not charge its users any fees. It currently has about 228,000 members, and at least 335 couples have found spouses through the group, according to news source Rest of World.

"Instead of waiting on their parents or family to find somebody, they are actually now doing it all on their own," a cofounder of a Facebook dating group for graduates of some of Pakistan’s premier business schools told Business Insider.

Image: Bumble

Dating app Bumble is rekindling its “Stand for Safety” initiative in India to help combat online abuse.

According to Business Today India, the company released a guidebook created in partnership with the Centre for Social Research (CSR), a non-profit, and Nyaaya, an open-access digital resource center that educates people about their rights. The guide will “drive awareness around digital safety and support the community in recognizing and combating online abuse, bullying, and discrimination.”

Bumble decided to relaunch the initiative after conducting a survey across India on the scope and effects of online harassment. The company found that 50 percent of respondents had seen hateful online content, and around 40 percent have faced hate speech and bullying in regard to their particular community, or to their physical appearance.