Bumble expands Opening Moves shortly after launch

Months after switching up its ethos of "women making the first move," Bumble announces changes to its Opening Moves feature.

Since its inception in 2014, Bumble has been known as the dating app that only lets women message first (in heterosexual matches). But in the age of dating app fatigue — including hearing from women about the exhaustion of sending that first message — the app created a way for men to technically make the first move. Opening Moves are prompts only women can place for men to respond to (again, for heterosexual users), and Bumble introduced them back in the spring.

Today, Bumble launches an expansion on the Opening Moves feature. Now, users can add up to three prompts for matches to choose which to reply to. Bumble users can now select a photo as an Opening Move, as well.

The app has received positive feedback since the launch of Opening Moves, a spokesperson told Mashable. Users appreciate the opportunity to have more ways to kick off the conversation and showcase more of their personality upfront, which makes it easier to break the ice.

Bumble's spokesperson said these updates are a direct result of user feedback. Chat initiation has increased by around 26 percent since the initial rollout of Opening Moves, with an around 77 percent increase in quality conversations globally. Bumble considers "quality conversation" to be one where both people engage with interest in progressing the chat, resulting in higher cadence and length of messages being sent, according to the spokesperson.

"By giving our members more creative, personalized ways to start conversations, we're seeing connections spark faster and more often," said Bumble's principal product lead Amanda McAlister in the announcement. "As dating continues to evolve, so do we, and these features allow members to match based on truly shared interests and start conversations that feel more authentic from the start."

These are the top Opening Moves thus far in the U.S., according to Bumble:

• What's your dream vacation destination?

• What's your ideal first date?

• Date night in or date night out?

• What's the last thing that made you smile?

• What's something I wouldn't know from your profile?

In addition to these changes, Bumble also added the ability to filter matches by chosen interests displayed on their profile — and over 30 new interests to choose from, like memes, houseplants, and mocktails. Ninety percent of Bumble users have at least two interest badges in their profile, and 60 percent have five, the most one can set, according to internal data.

As some people lean away from dating apps, dating apps seem to be encouraging more "quality" conversations (as with Hinge's new cap on unanswered messages). For now, it appears that Bumble is doing the same.