How To Add A Bumble BFF

While a dating app at its core, Bumble has always sought to do things slightly differently. From trying to avoid the hookup culture to giving women the first move and now including platonic friendships into the mix with Bumble BFF. It’s a neat feature that widens the user base of the app considerably. This tutorial will walk you through using, switching and adding a Bumble BFF.

There are three modes to Bumble, Date, BFF and Bizz. Date speaks for itself. That’s the standard dating app with swiping and all that good stuff. BFF is for friendships and works in a similar way. Bizz is Bumble’s attempt at taking on LinkedIn with a work-oriented feature.

Bumble BFF is a great idea I think. It uses the same mechanisms for selection, bio, pics and swipes but this time it’s purely for friendship. There is still the same anxiety and social awkwardness in meeting new people but as it’s for something platonic, there is a welcome lack of pressure for it to turn into anything. In that I think Bumble BFF is successful.

Using Bumble BFF

You can switch between the different modes in Bumble so you can spend an hour checking out your local dating prospects and then switch to BFF to see if there is anyone out there you would like to have a coffee and hang out with. BFFs seem to be only of the same gender, but dating could theoretically take care of opposite gender friendships. I certainly got friendzoned enough so I know that works!

Here’s how to activate Bumble BFF:

1. Log into Bumble on your device.
   
2. Select the Bumble logo on the front screen.
   
3. Select Bumble BFF when you see the three options on the next screen.
   

Adding a Bumble BFF

You will see a very similar stack of profile cards showing people of the same gender. You need to swipe left or right in the same way you would for a date, only with the goal of finding a friend in mind. You use the same profile for BFF as you do for Date so there is no extra work involved either.

Swipe right to add the BFF as a match and you can initiate a conversation in the usual way. You can chat, get to know and then meet offline for a coffee or whatever.

BFF chats are color coded in green to differentiate themselves from the yellow dating chats. This is also a good move as it is way too easy to lose track of what’s going on if you’re talking to multiple people at once. You just have to remember which is which!

Different profile different goals

If you’re using Bumble Date and Bumble BFF, you have the option to craft a profile for each. It would be almost impossible to create a profile to attract both dates and friends so this is a good move. The downside is that you now have to come up with two sets of profile pics and two bios. As if writing a dating profile wasn’t difficult enough, you now have to do it twice. Three times if you want to use Bumble Bizz too!

This is a good move though. A profile designed to attract a date is not going to be the same profile to attract a future best friend. Yes it’s more work and twice as much fretting over profile creation but you can tune your two profiles for two completely different goals.

Once you have your profiles, using each side of the app is exactly the same. You see the profile stack, you look at the pics and read the bio and swipe left to reject and right to match as you normally would.

Bumble made its name from allowing women to make the first move and that is still the case. The app has been tweaked to allow it to work in same sex friendships or relationships though. If there are two women matched, either can make the first move. If two males are matched, they too can make the first move. This is a change that needed to happen so it’s good to see it alive and well in Bumble.

Bumble BFF is a decent idea but can be just as awkward as the dating side when it comes to making the first move or conversation openers. If you’re comfortable with that side of things, it’s yet another way apps can enrich our lives.