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Bumble is planning a major shift in how its dating app works, and it could mark the beginning of the end for swiping as the centerpiece of online dating.
Speaking with Axios this week, Bumble CEO Whitney Wolfe Herd confirmed that the company intends to move away from the swipe mechanic that has dominated dating apps since the early 2010s. According to Wolfe Herd, Bumble is working on a new experience that will replace the familiar left-and-right system users have become accustomed to over the past decade.
“We are going to be saying goodbye to the swipe and hello to something that I believe is revolutionary for the category,” Wolfe Herd said.
The change comes as Bumble continues trying to reverse a steady decline in paying users. Over the past several quarters, the company has struggled to maintain subscriber growth, and the trend continued into this year. During the first quarter, Bumble’s paid user count dropped to roughly 3.2 million, down from around 4 million during the same period last year, a decline of about 21 percent.
For a company built around the swipe era of dating apps, redesigning the platform this aggressively is a significant move. It suggests Bumble believes the current formula may be losing relevance, particularly with younger users who have grown increasingly frustrated with traditional app-based dating.
Artificial intelligence is also expected to play a much larger role in Bumble’s next phase. The company has already revealed that it’s developing an AI-powered assistant called Bee, and Wolfe Herd has spent the last few years talking openly about how AI could reshape digital relationships.
Dating platforms already use AI extensively for recommendations and match suggestions, but Bumble appears interested in pushing that concept further into the user experience itself. Wolfe Herd has previously discussed ideas involving AI assistants interacting with one another before users ever start a real conversation.
That direction may not be an easy sell for everyone. Many younger users, especially Gen Z, have become more skeptical of highly visible AI features inside social platforms and consumer apps. Some of Bumble’s broader AI ambitions have already sparked debate about whether these tools improve dating or simply make it feel even less personal. Bumble’s redesigned app is expected to launch later this year. Until then, swiping remains part of the experience, but potentially not for much longer.
