Bumble eliminates swipe feature, CEO says

Could the growing frustration with dating apps finally end the swipe? For Bumble, it appears so.
During an Axios interview on Thursday, Bumble CEO Whitney Wolfe Heard confirmed the company is removing swiping — the signature feature of 2010s dating apps.
“We’re saying goodbye to the swipe and welcoming something I believe will revolutionize the category,” Wolfe Herd said.
Bumble plans a major app overhaul later this year after several lackluster quarters where it steadily lost paying subscribers. In Q1 this year, paid users dropped roughly 21% to 3.2 million, down from 4 million a year earlier.
A full redesign is a drastic move, sending a clear signal to investors that the situation is serious. Yet, like any capable CEO, Wolfe Herd has performed some verbal acrobatics to frame Bumble’s money-losing trajectory as a success.
“This has been a period of genuine transformation at Bumble over recent quarters,” she said during the quarterly earnings call. “We deliberately reset our member base. We chose to prioritize quality over quantity, focusing on well-intentioned, engaged users. That decision shrank our scale but significantly improved the health of our ecosystem.”
Given Wolfe Herd’s previous remarks on Bumble’s new direction, the company is expected to double down on AI — it’s even developing an AI dating assistant named Bee. Wolfe has frequently stated over the years that AI will serve as “a supercharger to love and relationships.”
Dating apps already rely on AI to determine which users are shown to each other. However, Gen Z is increasingly skeptical of overt AI features, and Wolfe Herd has hinted at even more futuristic scenarios, such as personal AI bots dating other AI bots on your behalf. It remains uncertain whether these Black Mirror-like pitches will actually resonate with users in their 20s. Bumble’s overhaul isn’t set to roll out until Q4 of this year, so swiping continues for now.
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Could the growing frustration with dating apps finally end the swipe? For Bumble, it appears so.
During an Axios interview on Thursday, Bumble CEO Whitney Wolfe Heard confirmed the company is removing swiping — the signature feature of 2010s dating apps.
“We’re saying goodbye to the swipe and welcoming something I believe will revolutionize the category,” Wolfe Herd said.
Bumble plans a major app overhaul later this year after several lackluster quarters where it steadily lost paying subscribers. In Q1 this year, paid users dropped roughly 21% to 3.2 million, down from 4 million a year earlier.
A full redesign is a drastic move, sending a clear signal to investors that the situation is serious. Yet, like any capable CEO, Wolfe Herd has performed some verbal acrobatics to frame Bumble’s money-losing trajectory as a success.
“This has been a period of genuine transformation at Bumble over recent quarters,” she said during the quarterly earnings call. “We deliberately reset our member base. We chose to prioritize quality over quantity, focusing on well-intentioned, engaged users. That decision shrank our scale but significantly improved the health of our ecosystem.”
Given Wolfe Herd’s previous remarks on Bumble’s new direction, the company is expected to double down on AI — it’s even developing an AI dating assistant named Bee. Wolfe has frequently stated over the years that AI will serve as “a supercharger to love and relationships.”
Dating apps already rely on AI to determine which users are shown to each other. However, Gen Z is increasingly skeptical of overt AI features, and Wolfe Herd has hinted at even more futuristic scenarios, such as personal AI bots dating other AI bots on your behalf. It remains uncertain whether these Black Mirror-like pitches will actually resonate with users in their 20s. Bumble’s overhaul isn’t set to roll out until Q4 of this year, so swiping continues for now.
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Microsoft, Azure and AI Tech Combat California Wildfire Risks
Microsoft invests in AI-driven wildfire detection, with Juan Lavista Ferres, CVP and Chief Data Scientist, discussing strategies to mitigate environmental damage.According to NASA, climate change impacts everyone on Earth, manifesting as rising tempe





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