Bumble India launches dating badges for post-lockdown meet-ups

The three badges: virtual, socially-distanced, or socially-distanced with masks, will allow users to choose the kind of dates they would like to go on.

As India ’unlocks’, Bumble, the woman-first social networking app, has launched three new dating filters to help people communicate on how they would like to date across the country.

The new badges are virtual, socially-distanced, or socially-distanced with masks. They will give the Bumble community the opportunity to skip the potentially awkward conversation about how they are comfortable dating post-lockdown. They will allow users to choose the kind of dates they would like to go on.

Bumble’s recent study found that 78 per cent of its community would be perfectly happy to meet-up in person, though 69 per cent are concerned about COVID-19, which is due to the lack of understanding in what is acceptable and safe in the new world of dating.

New trends have emerged as single people in India are learning to navigate this new world of dating. Bumble also found that dating habits changed during lockdown. There has been a shift towards ‘slow dating’. People are taking a longer time to get to know others on a deeper, more personal level, having better quality chats, and using Bumble app’s voice calls and video chat features. In fact, people are spending roughly 20 minutes on average on a video chats or voice calls.

The study also showed that 78 per cent of the Bumble community is open to, or has tried, video dating, further highlighting that virtual dating is here to stay.

The launch of the new badges is one of the ways in which Bumble will continue to offer single Indians an easy way to connect, as India unlocks and lifts strict restrictions across cities.

Priti Joshi, VP, strategy, Bumble, said, “Millions of people have virtually connected on Bumble across the world during lockdown. These new badges will help our community navigate the new rules of dating. We hope they will also encourage conversations about the ways that people feel comfortable dating in this time. At Bumble, we are committed to continue to give our community the tools it needs to connect with others in a way that feels safe to them.”

To add the badge to your Bumble profile, go to ‘Edit profile’ (bottom left corner) and click on ‘Tap to edit profile’ under your photograph. Once the badge is added, you can then filter potential matches, who have selected the same dating preferences, whether it’s virtual only or IRL.