My single friends: Feeling lonely right now? Of course you are. We’ve been in isolation for more than a month and you probably haven’t been able to date (or even make love) in that time.
Your pain is felt.
Thankfully, Bumble is throwing out a lifeline in the form of new virtual dating features.
Naomi Walkland, Bumble’s associate director for EMEA Marketing said: "During this period of social distancing we are committed to powering positive virtual connections. As Bumble still remains the only dating app which has video and voice calling built-in, we’re excited to be launching these features as a new and easy way for our users to continue their dating lives online.
"With the Virtual Dating badge, distance filter and enhance chat features we’re hoping to provide our users with the tools to continue to make meaningful connections during this period."
The badge appears in users’ profiles who are open to date via video chat and allows them to find and filter their prospective matches based on who is looking to date virtually.
Bumble is also expanding its distance filters to allow users to match with anyone in their country. Typically, the app allows users to connect with people within one to 50 miles of their location, but now users will see the option to connect with people nationwide in their app settings.
The company has seen a 26 percent increase in messages sent on its platform also and noted that more than one in four chats are turning into meaningful conversations with a large number of messages exchanged.
Because of this increased usage of Bumble’s chat platform, the company is giving its users new tools to enhance their chat experience and enable them to get to know each other better. In addition to the app’s existing chat, voice call, and video chat options, Bumble users can now record and send audio notes to their matches and reply to specific messages within their chats.
There was a 56 percent increase in video calls during the week ending March 27 compared to the week ending March 13. The average time for a video chat or voice call on Bumble globally is now 21 minutes.
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