Bumble will eliminate swiping — the defining interaction of 2010s dating apps — as part of a major redesign expected to launch in the final quarter of 2026, CEO Whitney Wolfe Herd confirmed in an interview with Axios on May 7, 2026.
“We are going to be saying goodbye to the swipe and hello to something that I believe is revolutionary for the category,” Wolfe Herd said. The company has not yet detailed what will replace the feature.
The overhaul comes after several consecutive quarters of declining paid users. In the first quarter of 2026, Bumble’s paying user base fell approximately 21%, dropping to 3.2 million from 4 million the previous year. On the company’s quarterly earnings call, Wolfe Herd framed the decline as intentional, describing it as “a deliberate reset of our member base” aimed at prioritizing “quality over quantity.”
AI is expected to play a central role in Bumble’s redesigned app. The company is already developing an AI dating assistant called Bee, and Wolfe Herd has previously described AI as “a supercharger to love and relationships.” She has also floated more speculative concepts, such as personal AI bots that could interact with other users’ AI bots on a person’s behalf.
Whether those AI-forward features will resonate with younger users is uncertain. The source notes that Gen Z has shown a negative trend toward prominent AI integrations in apps, which may complicate Bumble’s efforts to attract users in their 20s.
Until the redesigned app launches, users will continue to swipe as usual. The overhaul represents a significant strategic shift for a platform under pressure to reverse its user and revenue losses.
Source: TechCrunch