How To Turn Off Bumble When Traveling

Dating apps are great but there are times when you just want to sit back, relax and ignore them for a while. That is especially true when on vacation. Most daters will either use a vacation to meet someone new or turn off completely in a digital detox. If you’re one of the latter crowd, you’re going to want to know how to turn off Bumble when traveling.

You know as well as I do that ignoring Bumble or Tinder for even a day can mean you miss out on a potential match. It’s all part of the FOMO loop we get into and that the apps play on, where you have an expectation of a match and cannot cope with the idea of missing out on that match while you’re away.

Well Bumble has an answer. Snooze.

Time away from Bumble when traveling

Bumble doesn’t have a Passport feature like Tinder does where you can manually change your location. Unless you can get a GPS spoofing app or VPN to work on your phone, you’re stuck with your home area. That’s no bad thing while you’re at home but can be a bit limiting if you’re on the road a lot or when you’re on vacation.

There is an answer though, use Bumble’s Snooze function to pause your account while you’re away. You can even set an ‘out of office’ notification if someone matches you so you don’t miss out.

Snooze isn’t Passport but it is a way to avoid missing out and a way to immerse yourself in the destination you’re at instead of staring at a phone screen completely ignoring your surroundings.

Bumble Snooze does two things right.

It removes your profile card from the mix so you’re not up for selection while you’re not around. It also sends a message to any existing matches telling them you’re out of town or on vacation and not to worry if you go quiet for a few days.

That second feature is incredibly important. We have all had matches that we thought could have amazing potential only to go cold when they ghosted you. We have all sat looking at the screen wondering if you should message them to find out what’s up or whether to play it cool and ignore them. Ghosting is one of the worst aspects of dating apps and Bumble has included that in Snooze.

How to use Bumble Snooze

It is actually very straightforward to use Bumble Snooze. It is part of the Settings menu and can be enabled and disabled quickly. Here’s how:

1. Open Bumble and log in.
   
2. Select the gear icon to access Settings and select Snooze Mode.
   
3. Select a time for the app to snooze.
   
4. Set a reason for your absence on the next page.
   

You can set Bumble to snooze for 24 or 72 hours, a week or indefinitely. You can provide a reason like you’re traveling, you’re focused on work, having a digital detox or I’m prioritizing myself. You don’t have to give a reason but in the context of this article, it makes sense to use the traveling reason.

When activated, your existing matches will be notified you have enabled snooze and the reason why. Depending on how the current version of Bumble you’re using is set up, they may also get a message when you return and are encouraged to ‘welcome you back’. I’m not sure about the whole return notification thing but I guess it’s useful if you have matches you want to re-engage with.

Traveling with Bumble

I think Bumble is missing a trick by not having the facility to change your location. Sure, there are negative reasons why someone would want to do it but there are also so many positive reasons. I like that Bumble recognizes that apps and smartphones are not actually that important in life even though we treat them as they are, but there should be a middle ground.

If you like to meet new people while on vacation or on the road, using Bumble Snooze gives you a chance to do things the old fashioned way. You know, get out there in the real world, make eye contact with someone and talk to them. It’s surprisingly fun!