Profiles

Bumble Boost with BeeLine, Rematch, and BusyBee.

Female-focused dating app Bumble has been available for free to its users, but now the company is offering a premium paid service for those who want to use its brand new features.

The paid version of the app includes three important features aimed at competing with other popular “tiered” dating apps like Tinder, which also offers optional paid features to help provide a premium matching experience.

Bumble’s first feature, named “Beeline,” will offer its members a line-up of users who have already “liked” them, so they can skip swiping and match with their likes by choosing “yes,” with the intention of making the process more efficient.

Online dating can be daunting, whether you’ve done it off and on for years or it’s the first time you’re giving Tinder or OkCupid a try. It’s not for the faint of heart – so take courage in the fact that you are putting yourself out there to find love.

Unfortunately, no matter how much of a seasoned “pro” you think you might be, too many people make the same mistakes when it comes to online dating, and you might be one of them.

To optimize your profile and attract more matches to you requires some effort and savvy. Ask for help when you need it, and try to avoid these five online dating mistakes:

You've been told not to judge a book by its cover, but let’s face it: online dating is one big library and you have no intention of reading most of the books. You'll barely spare a glance for the description on the dust jacket.

It doesn’t stop at online dating. You’ve judged professional contacts by their headshots on LinkedIn. You’ve judged your partner’s exes by their Instagram pics. You’ve even judged strangers who disagree with you in the comments section by their chosen profile photos.

Pictures on social networks are users’ opportunity to present themselves and to affect how others judge them, but can a picture tell you anything about who a person really is? Are our judgements accurate?

Alex Williamson knows a thing or two about dating. The 28-year-old joined the Bumble team a few months before launch, and is now the app’s director of creative marketing and brand copywriter. If you’ve seen Bumble’s viral response to a finance bro (also known as "The Connor Letter”), you’ve seen Williamson’s work.

Refinery29 recently sat down with Williamson to get an insider’s perspective on the online dating industry. She shared what she’s learned working behind the scenes at one of the world’s most popular dating apps, offering advice on how to write a bio, how to choose a profile picture, how to identify red flags, and more. Her top tips include:

As online dating continues to spread around the world, scholars and scientists continue to investigate the practice. What makes an online dater successful? What makes the perfect profile? Is the perfect profile even achievable? What traits make singles more likely to find love online?

These are the questions asked by a new study published in the National Communication Association's journal Communication Monographs. The study looked at how specific types of content in online dating profiles affected viewers’ impressions and actions, and found that humility is key to online dating success.

“Online daters construct their profiles to attract potential partners and viewers’ assessments are based on the content of dating profiles,” explains the study. “However, little is known about the mechanisms or nature of the associations that connect variations in profile content to outcomes.”

Picture a David Attenborough documentary. He's explaining the mating call of a South American tree frog, or the mating dance of a rare bird. Researchers have sunk hours of study into the mating rituals of Earth's various winged, scaled, and furry creatues.

And humans? We may not have the wings, scales, and fur, or the charming British narrator, but scientists are just as dedicated to discovering the secrets of our own mating habits. Thousands of subjects in hundreds of studies have made calculated dating movies – some right, some wrong – so that you can learn from their actions.

While every study has its limitations, we can use research to shed light on what does and doesn't work, hopefully upping our chances of success in the process. Tech Insider compiled 7 dating tips science says singles should follow if they're serious about finding love, including: