Bumble and Tinder deploy AI assistants to revive dating apps amid Gen Z burnout

Bumble to launch an AI dating assistant, 'Bee' | TechCrunch

Dating app maker Bumble is venturing into generative AI. During the company's fourth-quarter earnings on Wednesday, Bumble introduced a new AI assistant it's calling "Bee," designed to become a personal matchmaker that learns users' "values, relationship goals, communication style, lifestyle, and dating intentions" through private chats. It then uses those insights to help find the user more relevant matches. Currently, Bee is in the pilot phase and being tested internally, founder and CEO Whitney Wolfe Herd told investors, but it's launching into beta soon. With Bee, the company envisions being able to capture much more information about Bumble users, as it learns more about each individual's story and what they really want. This could differentiate Bumble's app from others like Tinder, which also just underwent an overhaul as the dating app market has fizzled with Gen Z users. Bumble says users will interact with Bee much like they do with other AI chatbots, through typing and speaking in a more conversational style. Initially, Bee will be used to power a new dating experience, called "Dates," that uses AI to recommend matches; but in the future, Bumble says Bee will move into other areas, like offering date suggestions or requesting anonymous feedback from your prior matches. In "Dates," Bee will first learn about the user through a private, onboarding conversation. It then identifies two people who have shared intentions, values, and relationship goals. Both users are notified in the app with a description of why they make a great match. The addition is part of a broader tech and AI-focused overhaul of the dating app, which to date has marketed itself as more focused on women's needs. The company pioneered features like the "women message first," body-shaming bans, and tools that blurred unsolicited explicit images, among others. Now, it's looking to use AI to return to user growth amid a dating market that sees younger users, particularly Gen Z, growing tired of the swipe. In fact, Herd said that Bumble would experiment with removing the long-popular swipe mechanism in select markets to see how users react. Instead of prioritizing swipes as a binary "yes" or "no," Bumble is looking to leverage other features, like new "chapter-based" profiles where members can connect with one another on different parts of a user's life story. This will give Bumble more data to feed into its AI system and algorithms. "We will be introducing more dynamic ways for somebody to express interest in your story, rather than just your profile, and this is going to drive more dynamic engagement, spark better conversation, and ultimately drive better KPIs across the board -- like engagement and chances to get better conversations going," Wolf Herde said. "You will also see us take a much more deliberate approach to getting people offline versus just in what people refer to as dead-end chat zones." The company is also looking into other ways to better cater to Gen Z, a cohort that often prefers group socializing over one-on-one dates to get to know people. The company has been working to add AI to its app for years, rolling out changes like AI photo selection and feedback tools, for instance, as well as in areas like safety. Wolfe Herde told investors that Bumble's back-end infrastructure had been overhauled as the app infused itself with AI.

Tinder Unveils Video Speed Dating Feature, Deeper AI Integration

Tinder is also introducing safety improvements, such as enhancements to its "Are You Sure?" feature and a new auto-blur feature for its "Does This Bother You?" tool. Tinder announced a handful of new app updates -- including several AI-powered features -- marking its latest attempt to reinvigorate the brand for the crucial Gen Z audience. The changes, unveiled during an event in Los Angeles on Thursday, include a mix of new features, improvements to existing ones and some added safety measures. "With more than half our users under 30, we're building alongside a generation that wants dating to feel more authentic, lower-pressure and worth their time," Spencer Rascoff, the chief executive officer at Tinder and its parent, Match Group Inc., said in a statement. Get the Tech Newsletter bundle. Get the Tech Newsletter bundle. Get the Tech Newsletter bundle. Bloomberg's subscriber-only tech newsletters, and full access to all the articles they feature. Bloomberg's subscriber-only tech newsletters, and full access to all the articles they feature. Bloomberg's subscriber-only tech newsletters, and full access to all the articles they feature. Bloomberg may send me offers and promotions. Plus Signed UpPlus Sign UpPlus Sign Up By submitting my information, I agree to the Privacy Policy and Terms of Service. Many dating companies, including Match, Bumble Inc. and Grindr Inc., are reckoning with a generational shift in how young people prefer to meet other singles. And many users across different age demographics have indicated a feeling of burnout after using the apps continuously and not meeting quality matches. A common theme across all of the major companies' strategies is offering new features, many of which are powered by artificial intelligence. Bumble earlier this week announced an AI-powered assistant meant to act as a personal matchmaker. New Tinder features include: * A real-time video speed dating experience inside the app that will arrive later this spring. Users who have undergone photo verification can join scheduled virtual events for 3-minute video chats. * A new "Events" feature that lets users discover local goings-on and see who else is interested in attending. Gatherings run the gamut, including group classes and trivia nights. The feature will debut first in Los Angeles as part of a pilot run. * The app's existing "Music Mode" has been redesigned to connect users by shared musical taste. The feature prioritizes profiles with similar interests and gives them more prominent placement. * A new "Astrology Mode" lets users add their birth details to their profile and view deeper insights into how they might align with a potential match. * Tinder's Chemistry feature -- which uses AI to analyze profile information, user responses to questions, and photo insights to facilitate more meaningful connections -- will launch in the US and Canada. It is already available in Australia and New Zealand. * The brand is also introducing a real-time recommendation system called Learning Mode that's designed to better understand what people are looking for and make better match recommendations. On the safety side, Tinder said improvements will be coming to its "Are You Sure?" feature, which alerts users to potentially harmful language before they hit send. It also plans to add an auto-blur feature to its "Does This Bother You?" tool that detects potentially inappropriate messages. Another enhancement is a new initiative called "Tinder Connect" that aims to bring more of a user's real life into their profile based on the apps they're already using. The tool works with partners, including Duolingo and Beli, to better highlight user interests, from language to food taste. The company said it has previously seen success with its Spotify integration on the platform. While Match and other dating companies are investing heavily in AI as a way to reshape their signature apps, it is not clear that is what a majority of users want. Gen Z, which broadly dates less than older cohorts, reported higher discomfort than millennials with using AI to draft profile prompts and responses to messages, or to modify profile pictures, a survey published last year by Bloomberg Intelligence found.

Bumble is the latest dating app to add an AI assistant

Bumble is testing an AI dating assistant called "Bee" that it hopes will get users on dates without them having to swipe through profiles, Bloomberg writes. The company announced the AI assistant during its fourth quarter earnings, and intends to use the AI in a new experience it calls "Dates." When a user opts in to Bumble's Dates feature, Bee performs an onboarding chat where it learns about the users' "values, relationship goals, communications style, lifestyle and dating intentions," and then attempts to find other users who share some or all of those traits. Once Bee finds someone compatible, both users are notified in the app that they could be a great match, and receive a summary generated by Bee explaining why. From there, they can chat and see if things lead to a real-life date. As is often the case with pie-in-the-sky AI features, Bumble has even bigger plans for how Bee could be used in its app, including as a tool for collecting anonymous feedback from user's previous matches or as a way to receive suggestions for dates ideas. AI will also apparently enable Bumble to move away from binary yes or no swipes on profiles and towards a system where users connect over "chapter-based" profiles that are more reflective of their life story. Bumble is testing Bee internally and plans to launch the AI and its Dates feature in beta soon. The company is far from the only dating app experimenting with integrating AI recommendations and summaries. Tinder uses AI to recommend profile pictures to users, and now offers another feature called "Chemistry" that combines insights gained from personal questions and access to users' Camera Roll to make more informed matches. Meanwhile, Grindr's "Edge" subscription tier offers AI summaries of past chats and connections, and stats on whether a user is actually compatible with a new match. It's too early to tell whether AI makes a meaningful difference in the dating experience for users, but if it keeps them using an app or paying for a subscription, it's likely a worthwhile experiment for Bumble, Tinder and Grindr.

Bumble's New AI Assistant Aims to Take Dating Beyond the Swipe

Dates is meant to move beyond surface-level swiping to better understand users and their needs, and will roll out first as part of a pilot program for a select group of users. Bumble Inc. unveiled a new artificial intelligence-powered assistant designed to act as a personal matchmaker, the company's latest effort to reinvigorate itself at a time when many users have shown dating-app fatigue. The new opt-in tool, called Dates, starts with a private, in-depth conversation that explores broad topics like values, relationship goals, communication style, lifestyle and dating intentions. When it identifies two people who are aligned in these areas, both are notified with a summary explaining why they are a strong match. Chats with the AI assistant are private and nothing will be shared on a user's public profile, the company said on Wednesday. Members can also choose what topics of their conversation can be shared with a potential match. Dates -- which is powered by Bumble's own AI model, called Bee -- is meant to move beyond surface-level swiping to better understand users and their needs, founder and Chief Executive Officer Whitney Wolfe Herd said in an interview. The tool will not write messages on behalf of members or generate conversations. It will roll out first as part of a pilot program for a select group of users. Though it will be free to start, it could become a premium offering over time, the company said. The new feature, which was announced during the company's fourth-quarter earnings call, is part of a larger effort by Bumble to return its namesake dating app to growth. Wolfe Herd, who earlier co-founded Tinder, started Bumble in late 2014 with the novel idea that women should be the ones to start conversations on her dating app. While that pitch was unique at the time, revenue has since slowed, with Gen Z splitting from older generations in how they prefer to date. Bumble isn't alone: Other dating companies, including Tinder parent Match Group and Grindr Inc., are also reinventing their apps in the age of AI in a bid to reverse stubborn subscriber losses. Tinder is expected to unveil its next-generation AI features at an event in Los Angeles on Thursday. The goal of Dates is to get people to meet up with compatible matches and to "remove some of the emotional friction that really sits between matching and meeting," Wolfe Herd said, adding that she sees solving this challenge as a key opportunity for the company. It builds on what she said reflects the Bumble community's feedback, which is that users don't just want to go on more dates but better ones. "We don't see AI as a gimmick layer on top of swiping," she said. "It really needs to be an infrastructure for better relationships. It should not just be a chatbot layered on top of something." Wolfe Herd has previously said she wouldn't have swiped on her husband's dating profile if she had seen one, but now believes having an AI agent knowing how compatible they actually are could have brought them together otherwise. The company said future iterations of the tool may include date suggestions and offer prompts requesting feedback, allowing it to learn how a date went so that it can better understand member's needs. Wolfe Herd believes the era of dating is shifting from randomized discovery -- the current swipe model that she helped invent while at Tinder -- to an era of search, giving users more control over their experience, rather than "feeling like the algorithm is defining who you see and why you see them." At the same time, she sees AI and the more conventional swiping design complimenting each other. "It's like online shopping -- you could go to an online site and scroll for dresses and shoes and add something to your wish list but maybe it's not in your size," she said. "Or you could go for the personal shopper, and say 'I have a wedding this weekend and want to wear a pastel dress in a certain size and it needs to be delivered to my house in time.' You can be very precise, and the personal shopper will bring me back six to eight options that all fit the criteria." Bumble is already using artificial intelligence to enhance safety and verification processes, including automated detection of spam and fake profiles with tools like Deception Detector. It is also leaning on the technology to help purge bad-actor accounts and for features like Profile Guidance and its "Review Before You Send" prompt that nudges people to think twice before sending certain messages.

Tinder's Solution to Dating App Burnout Is More AI

Tinder believes the solution is in an AI-infused experience. On Thursday, the company announced a long list of new features to be deployed in the app in the coming months. As of Thursday, users in the U.S. and Canada will be able to take advantage of a feature called "Chemistry," which will give users a daily AI-curated recommendation of potential matches. In a press release, Tinder described it as its "AI-powered way of cutting through dating fatigue." The AI will get to know more about you through a Q&A, and if you opt into it, a scan of your camera roll to understand "things like your interests, lifestyle, and personality themes," the company said. The camera roll scan feature is not yet available on the app, but will begin testing later this year in Australia, Canada, and the U.S. While the "Chemistry" feature is limited to a few countries, users globally can turn on "Learning Mode" if they really want Tinder's AI to give them a read of their personality and taste. In this mode, Tinder's AI recommendation system will be constantly gathering information on you whenever you use the app, and will use it to tweak which profiles get recommended to you. Tinder believes in the feature. According to internal testing, the women who used the "Learning Mode" feature had a higher likelihood of returning to the app within the first week. The goal is to eventually grow these AI curation abilities beyond a few features and integrate them into the whole Tinder experience, the company said. "With more than half our users under 30, we’re building alongside a generation that wants dating to feel more authentic, lower-pressure, and worth their time,†the CEO of Tinder's parent company, Match Group, Spencer Rascoff, said in the press release. "We’re using AI to surface more relevant connections, and continuing to raise the bar on safety so that people feel confident taking the next step. Taken together, these changes mark the most significant evolution of our app in years and make Tinder more trusted, social, intelligent and expressive.†Also starting testing in a few weeks in parts of the U.S. is the "Photo Enhance" feature that will use AI to help edit the photos you put on your profile. The company is also turning to AI to address user safety issues with the dating app. A feature called "Are You Sure?", which gives alerts to users before they send any potentially disrespectful texts, is getting an LLM-revamp, and so is "Does This Bother You?", a feature that detects inappropriate messages, helps the receiver in reporting them, and will also now auto-blur any flagged content. "These enhancements move beyond keyword detection to context-aware understanding of tone and conversational nuance, enabling smarter prompts that reinforce respectful behavior in real time," the company said in a press release. Earlier this week, Bumble also made a similar AI announcement, introducing an opt-in AI assistant called "Dates" that will first try to understand more about the user in private conversations with the chatbot and then match users based on compatibility. Both Bumble and Tinder, once the two dominating dating apps in the glory days of online dating, have been hit by the great Gen Z dating app disillusionment. Match, which also owns the popular Hinge dating app, has been dealing with consistent subscriber declines.

Tinder wants to fix dating apps with AI

Why it matters: Users increasingly struggle to tell the difference between real connections and the bots. * Dating apps are now using AI to fix a problem technology helped create. The big picture: Tinder's new updates include a speed dating experience and an AI feature to assess potential chemistry. What they're saying: "With more than half our users under 30, we're building alongside a generation that wants dating to feel more authentic, lower-pressure and worth their time," Spencer Rascoff, Match Group and Tinder CEO, said in a statement. * "We're using AI to surface more relevant connections." Driving the news: Photo-verified users can join scheduled, virtual speed dating events starting this spring. * The events will involve three-minute video chats "with the option to add more time and connect with multiple matches in real time," the company said. Between the lines: If speed dating is a blast from the past, AI chemistry tests are a glimpse into the future -- namely, the one from "Her." * "Instead of endlessly Liking profiles, users will get a daily curated recommendation based on what actually makes you, you," the company said of the feature, which has already been rolled out in Australia and New Zealand. * "Using a Q&A and optional features like Camera Roll Scan, we get a better sense of your personality, your vibe, and what matters to you." * The scan will also help users discover "photo insights" based on patterns in their camera rolls. Other new features include an "events" mode to discover in-person events, an "astrology mode" allowing users to add their birth details, and a learning mode that "continuously gathers feedback to surface more relevant recommendations earlier." * The company is launching improved safety measures as well, including an "are you sure?" feature alerting users "to potentially harmful language before they hit send." Zoom out: As they struggle to maintain users, dating apps such as Bumble and Grindr are also investing in AI. Zoom in: Users are also deploying AI, mirroring the increasingly popular bot vs. bot world of the web. * Chatbots can suggest witty messaging banter, alter photos and write bios and pick-up lines. By the numbers: A survey last year from Match and researchers at the Kinsey Institute found that 26% of U.S. singles reported using AI to enhance dating -- up 333% from the year before. * 6 in 10 people who use dating apps believe they've encountered at least one conversation written by AI, per a study from Norton. The bottom line: It's getting more and more likely that AI is third-wheeling your online romance.

Bumble to test AI-powered dating experience

Bumble will soon test an AI dating experience called, simply, Dates. Dates will be powered by Bee, a standalone product feature designed as a personal dating assistant and matchmaker, Whitney Wolfe Herd, founder and CEO, said during its Q4 2025 earnings call. As Bumble told Mashable, users will start using Dates with an onboarding conversation to discuss values, relationship goals, communication style, lifestyle, and dating intentions. These conversations, which will be with "Bee," will apparently be private and not shared on your profile. Users will also be able to control what elements of the conversation Bee uses to search for matches. Then, Bee will identify a highly-compatible profile and notify both users with a description of why they're a match. If the interest is mutual, the connection moves to a conversation. "To fully recover and return to growth, we must focus on product and technology innovation, which is where our efforts are now," Wolfe Herd said during Bumble's earnings call. Bumble's total revenue and paying users had decreased year over year (14 percent and 21 percent, respectively) compared to Q4 2024. Wolfe Herd said that since the start of this year, she's been spending 90 percent of her days with the tech and product teams "reimagining what finding love looks like in the era of AI." "We are rearchitecting the entire Bumble experience from start to finish," she said. Bumble can't use its legacy tech stack (the set of technologies that together build an app), so it's building a new, cloud-native tech stack with a targeted launch in Q2. Wolfe Herd said it's not just a backend upgrade, but a fully new platform coming. Wolfe Herd also acknowledged the burnout and disillusionment with dating apps as of late. "Daters across the industry are dissatisfied with being reduced to images and potentially dismissed with a swipe," she said. "Bumble 2.0 introduces a chapter-based structure designed to help members tell their stories more authentically and understand one another more deeply." She said the AI prioritizes fewer, more relevant matches over volume, combats swipe fatigue, and helps members move towards real-world connections. The beta of Dates is launching soon, and future iterations are expected to incorporate date suggestions and anonymous feedback. Bumble already launched some AI features, Profile Guidance and Photo Feedback, last month. Back in 2024, Wolfe Herd discussed an AI-powered dating concierge that would basically date for you, so it's unsurprising that the app is taking this direction.

Dating app Tinder dabbles with AI matchmaking

New York (AFP) - Tinder said Thursday that it is testing a "Chemistry" option that uses artificial intelligence to help with matchmaking in the popular dating app. The iconic system of users "swiping" to show interest in Tinder profiles remains at the core of the service created in 2012, but AI promises a more personalized quest for romance, according to Tinder. "We're using AI to surface more relevant connections, and continuing to raise the bar on safety so that people feel confident taking the next step," Spencer Rascoff, chief executive of Tinder and its parent Match Group, said in a statement announcing a slew of changes to the platform. Tinder said AI enabled the app to "get a better sense of your personality; your vibe, and what really matters to you." The tool will learn about users from information in their accounts, and Tinder plans to eventually let people augment that by answering questionnaires and providing access to photo archives, according to the company. Chemistry is among new features designed to help Tinder users spend less time in the app and more time connecting in real life, according to senior vice president of product Hillary Paine. "What you are going to see is more of an evolution that is mirroring what modern, young daters are looking for," Paine told AFP. A music mode lets people give greater weight to musical tastes while seeking promising profiles, while a new astrology mode makes star signs a factor in the mix. Tinder is also testing in-person events where subscribers in its home city of Los Angeles can meet, along with virtual video speed dating sessions, according to Paine. "We're hearing and we're seeing that Gen Z-plus wants to be social," Paine said of those born in the Internet Age. "We're trying to get them off the couch, out of their apartments and into the real world." Tinder is also using AI to detect potentially inappropriate messages and to scan faces to check they are actual people. A survey published by Forbes magazine last year found that 78 percent of users expressed feeling emotionally, mentally and physically exhausted from using online dating platforms. "With more than half our users under 30, we're building alongside a generation that wants dating to feel more authentic, lower-pressure, and worth their time," Rascoff said.