6 Surprising Ways Bumble Is Making Meaningful Connections IRL
When you think about dating apps, you probably think mostly about, well, dating. The whole purpose of these platforms as we know them is to help connect singles with people who just might be their one true love and to set them up for a successful (hopefully long-lasting) relationship. Happily ever after FTW!
We’re obviously huge proponents of dating apps for finding love if that’s your thing (dates IRL are cool too), but it’s recently come to our attention that the sites we typically view as geared toward romance are also connecting people in other kinds of ways. Bumble, in particular, has been bringing users together outside of dating, thanks in large part to platform extensions intended for professional networking (Bumble Bizz) and friendships (Bumble BFF).
Check out these stories of the unique bonds forged through Bumble (and a few love stories too).
double booked bffs
Last year, two single women waiting for their dates made a friend connection… and then realized that they were, in fact, waiting for the same date, who had committed two major cardinal dating sins: 1.) lateness and 2.) double booking. Rather than turning against each other (or wallowing in the awkwardness, which would have been somewhat understandable), the women just became BFFs… not only with each other, but also with the four other women who the same guy had also booked dates with that night! (We know. Ew.) Bumble even sent the six pals to a music festival to celebrate their new friendship. “We knew that we had to meet them in person, hug them, and empower their bond,” Bumble’s user experience manager Cecily Gold said.
woman’s best friend
One Bumble user used the app’s BFF extension when she moved to a new city, and she made both human and four-legged friends. Per an anonymous testimonial: “I have a friend who moved from Austin to Tampa Bay and used Bumble BFF to find friends there. She swiped right on any girl that mentioned she had a dog, and the group of girls she met through BFF have become her best friends. They even started a Tampa Bay dog mom’s club too!” Can we join the club, please?
professional networking
When Ashley downloaded Bumble’s profesh-minded Bumble Bizz, most of what she knew about the platform as a whole came from her single friends, since she’d been in a relationship ever since the app’s primary dating function launched. She was in search of other female business founders and says she “quickly found it to be useful for an array of things connected” to her business. Within just a week, Ashley met for coffee to discuss a potential collaboration and arranged multiple phone meetings with other awesome boss ladies — all of whom she met through Bizz. “It’s impressive how quickly these connections were made and how applicable they are,” she says. “It almost felt like there was an algorithm that knew what I needed, even though I don’t recall giving a whole lot of input besides my profile info.”
newlywed neighbors
Just because Bumble is successfully making connections that have absolutely nothing to do with love and romance doesn’t mean that it can’t make those connections too. Olivia and Lee Alexander lived less than 1,000 feet away from each other in Vancouver for three years before Bumble brought them together in 2017 (that’s right — it took a dating app to get them to meet). They eloped in an intimate ceremony just 242 days after matching, and Bumble’s head of brand Alex Williamson el-Effendi got ordained and traveled to Canada to officiate their marriage.
SNOWBALL FIGHT PROPOSAL
Earlier this year, neurosurgeon Brenton and fashion entrepreneur Michaela — who met on the app in 2015 — got engaged in the middle of a Bumble-orchestrated surprise indoor snowball fight in New York City. The ring itself was hidden in a faux snowball. Does snowfall get more magical than this? Doubtful.
carpool karaoke proposal
Okay, okay… just one more romantic success story. (If you’ve watched the video, you know why we had to include it.) Tyler — who met his now-fiancé EB on the Bumble app — staged a surprise carpool karaoke proposal at the end of last year. EB’s family flew in from across the country to participate in the karaoke battle… and if that wasn’t enough of a tip-off that something special was around the corner, the Disney tunes should probably have been a clue.
Do you have a favorite online dating story? Tweet us @BritandCo!
(Photos via Bumble)
