Men will soon be able to message first on Bumble

On Bumble, the app that started with the ethos of "women making the first move," men will now be able to message first, according to the company's latest earnings call. "Now, for the first time on Bumble, by default, anyone will be able to send only one single opening message, and the conversation does not progress until the recipient responds," Bumble founder and CEO Whitney Wolfe Herd said on yesterday's earnings call for Q2 2026.

No more "women make the first move"Wolfe Herd founded Bumble in 2014 as the feminist response to Tinder, of which she was also a part of the founding team. Originally, in heterosexual matches, only women could message first. But the app has been trending away from that for some time, as two years ago it launched "Opening Moves," a way for men to technically message first by responding to a prompt on a woman's profile. (The app has since sunset Opening Moves in Australia and Mexico, though.)

Men will soon be able to message first on Bumble

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