Most people who download a dating app delete it within a month. The ones who stay describe spending hours swiping through profiles without finding anyone worth meeting. Bumble helped build that experience. Now it’s trying to replace it.
Bumble announced it will phase out its signature swipe feature and replace parts of the matchmaking experience with an artificial intelligence assistant called Bee, according to an ABC report. Rather than browsing profiles and selecting matches manually, users will share detailed information about themselves, including goals, communication style and preferences, and Bee will recommend compatible matches directly. Bumble founder and CEO Whitney Wolfe Herd, who returned to lead the company in March 2025, called AI “a supercharger to love and relationships.”
The announcement coincides with one of the most difficult stretches in the company’s history. Bumble reported a 10% revenue decline in the third quarter of 2025, with total paying users falling 16% to 3.6 million compared to the same period a year earlier.
The Swipe Model Breaks Down
Bumble’s numbers reflect a broader industry problem. A 2024 Forbes Health survey found that 79% of Gen Z users reported fatigue with dating apps, citing time spent without meaningful results. Mobile analytics firm AppsFlyer reported that 65% of dating apps downloaded in 2024 were deleted within a month, a figure that climbed to 69% in 2025, according to a November 2025 Fast Company report. In the U.K., Tinder, Hinge and Bumble lost a combined 1.1 million users between May 2023 and May 2024, according to a 2024 Ofcom report.
Match Group, which owns Tinder and Hinge, saw paying subscribers fall to 14.2 million in Q1 2025, down 5% year over year and the fifth consecutive quarter of payer decline, according to an Internet Vibes report. Tinder’s direct revenue dropped 7% in the same period.
From Marketplace to Matchmaker
Bee represents a structural redesign of how Bumble works. Instead of users driving their own discovery by browsing and swiping, the AI assistant learns their preferences through conversation and surfaces matches it believes fit. Users also gain the ability to share more detailed information about themselves beyond basic profile fields, giving the system more to work with.
Advertisement: Scroll to Continue
Bumble is also relaxing its signature rule requiring women to message first in heterosexual matches, a change that suggests the company is rethinking its core identity alongside the interface.
It’s not the only platform moving in this direction. Tinder has introduced AI-powered discovery tools. Grindr is building an AI Wingman feature designed to help users start better conversations. A new app called Amata, which raised $6 million before launching in New York City in September 2025, uses an AI matchmaker to set up one-on-one dates, handling logistics entirely, according to a report in Columbia Journalism School’s news service.
The Business Problem AI Has to Solve
Bumble’s challenge isn’t purely a product one. The company’s revenue model depends on converting free users into paying subscribers, a dynamic that gets harder as the user base shrinks. In Q1 2025, Bumble App reported a 6% revenue decline and a paying user base of 2.7 million, down 104,000 from the prior quarter.
Hinge offers a reference point for what a more intentional product can do. Under Match Group’s ownership, Hinge grew from $8 million in revenue in 2018 to $550 million in 2024, according to Business of Apps, by positioning itself around relationships rather than volume. Gen Z makes up more than 50% of its user base. It’s the one major dating platform that hasn’t seen a subscriber exodus.
Bumble’s bet is that AI can do for its platform what Hinge’s design did for its: shift the value proposition from quantity of matches to quality of outcomes. Whether Bee can deliver that, and whether users will trust artificial intelligence to recommend a partner, is what Bumble’s next chapter depends on.
