For the past four years of my life, I have been religiously using Tinder as my main form of online dating. I know, yikes! I never took Tinder too seriously and I can’t tell you how many times I’ve deleted my Tinder profile and promised myself that, “this is the last time, no I mean it, this is seriously the last time.” And yet, every couple of months, I find myself logging back into the little fire app filled with sound cloud rappers and professional vapers.
I’ve never actually met up with anyone on Tinder, to me, Tinder was like flirting with the idea of flirting. And on the rare occasion, I wanted to go out on a real date, all of my conversations on Tinder began with, “Hey, how are you?” (followed by an immensely painful amount of small talk) and ended with, “wyd tonight? Wanna come over? I’m a 24-year-old man playing Fortnite in my lego boxers.”
I’ve had a lot of friends who’ve enjoyed using the Tinder app and have had positive experiences but most of them were looking for something casual and I felt like I wanted something more.
I’ve heard about Bumble from friends, ads, and a couple of articles online but I didn’t know anyone who was actually using it. Bumble always felt too close to eHarmony or Match.com and I wasn’t looking for a serious relationship but at the same time I was open to the idea of dating and getting to know someone new.
One feature that caught my attention was how girls made the first move. Bumble’s been advertised as a “women’s dating app” since girls have the power to choose whether or not they’d like to start a conversation with a guy or another girl on the app. I was skeptical about whether this would still affect the people I’d meet on the app but I wanted to give Bumble the benefit of the doubt!
Creating a Profile
Tinder
You can easily log in with your Facebook or email account information and your Tinder profile won’t be revealed on your Facebook page. Afterward, you’re directed to your profile where you can add profile pictures, a short “about me,” and your school information. If you signed in with your Facebook account, you can also plug in interests from your Facebook page and connect your Instagram and Spotify.
Sounds easy and quick enough! Some of the positives of Tinder is how easy you can create your account and meet people you wouldn’t ordinarily talk to. Not to mention the quick ego boosts that I’ll get more into later.
Now, as easy as logging in and out of Tinder might be, I always felt that a couple of pictures and a short about me wasn’t enough to really get to know the person I was talking to…
Bumble
You can also log in with your Facebook or email account information (which also won’t be revealed on your Facebook profile) and you have three options: you can choose “dating,” “looking for friends,” or “networking.” In this instance, I chose “dating” to compare the app to Tinder dating.
Next, you’re directed to a questionnaire on your basic preferences. Bumble asks you what kind of relationship you’re looking for, what school you go to, what’s your astrology sign, whether you want kids, how often you drink or smoke, and you can see the rest below.
You then can add profile pictures and you can choose a maximum of three questions to answer that will be posted on your profile.
Here’s what I chose…
Afterward, you can verify your Bumble account by taking a picture of yourself and Bumble will approve whether the account is really you or you’re just catfishing within five minutes! How accurate the verifcation system is, is debatable but it’s oddly comforting.
Getting Started
On both Tinder and Bumble, you can go to the settings page and plug in the age for who you’re looking for, as well as gender and distance away from where you live.
Tinder
Now you’re ready to start swiping!
You can swipe right or left to choose who you’d like to match with and you can sort through each person’s profile pictures, bio, and distance. Tinder quickly alerts you when you’ve found a match and you’re ready to start talking.
Here’s where the ego boosts kick in! Tinder can feel a lot like a game where you’re swiping and choosing people to match with even if it’s not really going anywhere. And as fun as that might be at first, after a while, it can get old.
Bumble
You can still swipe left or right but you can also scroll down to see the person’s questionnaire answers and personal traits alongside their pictures. You also have the option for more filters on whether you want to talk to people who are social drinkers, want kids, etc.
Also, for girls, if you get a match you have the choice to start the conversation and the chat will expire within 24 hours if neither of you responds. Bumble also gives you a selection of conversation starters if you’re not quite sure what you want to use.
Here’s what made me question Bumble…
I ran into a lot of the empty conversations I’d experienced on Tinder that didn’t lead anywhere. But I was surprised by the number of conversations I had that were funny, sweet, and honest. Compared to Tinder I only had ⅖ creepy convos!
Final Thoughts…
I’ve been using Bumble for a week now and I still haven’t met up with anyone but I found my conversations are more consistent than on Tinder. More of the people I talk with are upfront with what they’re looking for but that could just be luck.
Whether you’re using Tinder or Bumble, just be honest about what you’re looking for and trust your gut, and remember not to take it too seriously. And have fun swiping!