Bumble is scrapping the rule that only women could send the first message to a match, a feature that defined the app since its 2014 launch under founder Whitney Wolfe Herd.
The company says a trial showed increased engagement without the rule, and a survey found 66% of women preferred men to message first; the messaging window is also being extended from 24 hours to three days.
Reaction on Reddit's Bumble community has split between users who feel the app is now indistinguishable from competitors and others who say the original rule left women carrying too much of the conversational burden. The change comes as Bumble's UK user base fell from nearly 1.5 million to 1.1 million monthly users between 2023 and 2025, and after the company laid off nearly a third of its global staff last year.
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