How to Build an App like Bumble in 7 Easy Steps?

Bumble is a location-based app that allows you to browse through its users’ profiles. What started as a dating app has now grown to become a full-scale networking platform with a community of 100 Million users and spreading across six continents. 

Bumble portrays itself as “Bumble has now grown far beyond a dating app into a networking platform, allowing people of all genders to make empowered connections in all areas of their lives.

The dating app, unlike its competitor Tinder, focuses on giving more power to women for making the first move on the app. Bumble highlights movements like #MeToo, #TimesUp, and even #BlackLivesMatter. 

In this article, we are going to look at how Bumble works, how to build a dating app, what is Bumble’s business model, and the development cost of an app like Bumble. 

Before we look at all this, let’s get an overview of the app:

App Name:	Bumble
CEO	Whitney Wolfe Herd
Founded In	December 2014
Annual Revenue (2020)	USD 337 Million.
Monthly Active Users	12.3 Million.
Top Competitors	Tinder, Match.com, Hinge, and Scout.

How Does Bumble Work?

When you install Bumble, the first thing that you would need to do is to create an account, either using Facebook or using your cell no.

Once you have completed that step, you will get an option to choose what you are looking for with 3 different options:

• Date
• BFF
• Bizz

After you have chosen your desired mode, You will get a brief tour of the app. After which, you need to verify your profile using a selfie. They will ask you to pose in a certain way and upload a selfie. This will verify your profile, which will give you a blue star indicating to other people that you are the person you say you are. 

Completing your profile is very important on Bumble. This allows you to rank higher according to the Bumble algorithm. You must add a lot of things, like the “Prompts” which allows you to select from a set of questions that you can answer in your way. 

You can add a short description of yourself in the “My Bio” section. And fill in your details like work, education, height, exercise, drinking/  smoking habits, etc. in the “My Basics” or “More About Me” section. 

You can also connect your Instagram and Spotify accounts to Bumble. If you complete all these steps you will reach 100% profile completion. 

The Bumble messaging system is a bit different from other apps; on Bumble, if two profiles swipe right on each other only, the woman has the power to initiate the conversation, while in case of a same-gender mutual match, any one of the two people can initiate the first-move. 

In case, the match is left without a response; then it expires after 24-hours. However, a premium feature called “rematch” helps you match with the person again after 24-hours. 

If you have Bumble Premium/ Boost(we will cover it later in the article), you get additional benefits which you can use to either Spotlight, SuperSwipe, or Beeline.

Features of the Bumble networking application:

• Spotlight: What is spotlight on Bumble? Just as the name suggests, this feature gives you higher visibility on the app and puts you on top of the stack. 
• SuperSwipe: If you like somebody on Bumble very much you can use SuperSwipe to let them know. 
• Beeline: The Beeline is a list of profiles who have swiped right on you but you haven’t swiped right on yet. 
• Incognito: It allows you to have more control over who sees your profile. 
• Rematch: It allows you to rematch with expired matches who were on queue earlier. 
• Bumble BackTrack: You can view profiles that are accidentally swiped left. This feature is only included with Bumble Premium.

These are some of the features that you get with Bumble Premium/ Boost. 

How Does the Bumble Algorithm Work?

When you are trying to understand how to build an app like Bumble, it is really important to look at the algorithm behind the app. This is what separates great apps from worthless ones.

So let’s look at some of the ways the Bumble app functions: 

• All the users that you have right-swiped will appear first on your screen.
• Bumble doesn’t hold your behavioral pattern data, meaning it does not remember the type of people you right swipe/ left swipe.
• If you keep spamming right swipes, Bumble will mark you as a bot in it’s algorithm. 
• You can pause your account if you want to take a break from it. 
• If you delete your account, it doesn’t leave a bad mark on the algorithm. You can always start with a clean slate. 

These are the basics of the Bumble algorithm and will help you further shortlist the features you want for your app. 

How To Build An App Like Bumble In 7 Easy Steps:

To learn how to build an app like Bumble, you first need to look at the various steps involved in doing so. 

1. Do Proper Market Research:

This sector of the app development market is extremely competitive. There are so many apps available on the App Store and the Google Play Store, but only a few are profitable.

The only method to create a popular and successful app in this segment is to conduct in-depth market research and analysis. You should understand your target audience and know what they like this will come in handy when you market your app to them.

2. Create a Working Business Model:

The majority of successful businesses in this segment depend heavily on subscription plans. Like Bumble has the “Boost” and “Premium” subscription plans. 

Although the cost of these plans varies from country to country, the features offered always remain the same.   

This type of business model with the core app being free with additional features being paid is known as a “freemium” business model.

You can also go with monetizing your app via ads, with an ad-free paid version. but it often spoils the premium feel of the app. It will be most logical to consider the freemium model. 

3. Develop the App:

To develop a dating/ profile browsing app we need to understand the basics of app development. The features you would need will heavily vary the process of the development. You either need to get experienced freelancers onboard or outsource the entire project to an app development company. 

When you are sure of the features, app’s internals you want. You first need to get UI/ UX designers who can create a working design prototype of the app. This will allow you to make changes and make the app more user-friendly and appealing. 

After you have the design ready it is time to hand it over to the front-end development team who will bring the design to life. Bumble’s front-end is definitely one of its most distinguishing features.

Once you are satisfied with the front-end design, you must hire back-end developers to create the internals of the app. This involves the magic algorithm that has made Bumble so popular. Make sure you use a similar or a better algorithm to give an edge over your competitors. 

Also, make sure you create an MVP for your app, arkenea.com defines MVP as “An MVP or minimum viable product is an app development philosophy that focuses on the development of the basic iteration of your mobile app that offers the core benefits of your product to its target users.”

This basically means making changes and alterations to the app continuously until you get the best version of it for your user.

Also, you need AI engineers to integrate some features into your app, the next section holds the details for the same. 

Idea Usher has an expert team of UI/UX designers, front-end developers, back-end developers, AI engineers, and marketers who can help you create an app similar to Bumble.

4. How Bumble Uses AI:

When it comes to modernizing apps, AI or Artificial Intelligence plays a key role in doing so. Bumble’s “Private Detector” feature uses AI to detect unsolicited content like pictures. This gives the recipient of the picture an option to avoid it, or view it. This system stands at around 98% accuracy. 

Such examples are commonplace in apps nowadays. You can do the same using integration AI into your app. For this, you would need to involve AI engineers in your team, who can work closely with the back-end developers to work on such AI-based features. Other use-cases of AI integrations in Bumble like dating and networking app is:

• Private Detector: detects and blurs NSFW content, and gives you an option to choose whether to view or ignore it. 
• Making better matches. 
• To protect users’ safety, many services have introduced security features powered by AI to minimize spam and ban spammers.

5. Test Your App:

You would need to test your app before launch to make sure that it functions properly and in an expected way in every scenario. You will require professional app testers in your team, who can perform various kinds of tests on your app like:

• Functional Test: It validates the software system against requirements. 
• Usability Test: Testing the app using demo users. 
• Compatibility Test: testing whether the app is working properly across various operating systems.
• Performance and Load Test: tests the performance of the application with the simulation of multiple users being present on the app at the same time. 
• Security Testing: testing whether the application is secured from hackers. 
• Installation Testing: Installation testing is performed to check if the software has been correctly installed with all the inherent features.
• Localization Testing: testing whether the app is functioning properly in a particular locale. 
• Manual Testing: Manual Testing is a type of software testing in which test cases are executed manually by a tester without using any automated tools.
• Automated Testing: Automated testing is a type of software testing in which test cases are executed automatically by a tester with the use of automated tools.
• Mobile Device Testing: testing whether the app functions properly on a mobile device. 

 These tests make sure that your application is safe, secure, and user-friendly. 

6. Launch the App:

Now that your app is developed and tested, it is time to launch your app in the App Store and Google Play Store. Make sure you select the right categories when publishing the app. 

It is extremely important to market the app before and at its launch. This will let people know what to expect from it. And also, this will target the right audience for your app. 

7. Marketing Tips:

You need to market your app properly when especially when launching the app. You can try:

• Offering a free trial of premium subscription plans
• Additional one-time use rewards and bonuses.
• Isolating and targeting a narrow niche audience. 
• Feature your app in the app store/ Play store. 

What is Bumble’s Business Model? 

 As discussed before, Bumble uses a Freemium business model. This means that it offers some of its features for free to users. But, to get complete access you need to be on a subscription plan.

This is different from a subscription model, which does not offer any free benefits. The infographics above explain the “Freemium” business model in a brief overview. Also, plans provided by Bumble are called “Boost” and “Premium,” which have different benefits. 

These images show what you get in which plan: 

Development Costs Of An App Like Bumble:

When it comes to the cost of the development of an app like Bumble, then we must understand that the features involved can vary the price drastically. 

Outsourcing it to an app development company might cost you anywhere starting from $6000. If you outsource the project to a company, they can coordinate and manage all the various teams for you and thus create a better quality product overall.

Read more about the benefits of outsourcing here. 

Conclusion

So now that you know how to build an app like Bumble, you should try to create an app that is unique in its own way. An app that has distinguishing features. This will give you an upper hand when it comes to marketing it to the right user.

So to create an app like Bumble you must conduct market research, list the desired features, create a design, make the front-end, make the back-end, integrate AI-based features, Test the app, launch the app, and finally market it.

Idea Usher has an expert team of UI/UX designers, front-end developers, back-end developers, AI engineers, and marketers who can help you create an app similar to Bumble.

FAQ:

Q. Which programming languages are used to code an app like Bumble?

A. Languages like Python, Java/ Kotlin, Swift, etc are used to code an app like Bumble.

Q. Does Tinder make money?

A. Yes, Tinder made $1.2 Billion in the last financial year. 

Q. What is the average age group of Tinder users?

A. The average age group for Tinder users is 30 years to 44 years.