Bumble BFF Embraces AI Openers
Bumble BFF is adding icebreakers to its app that are powered by AI. The idea is to help take the pressure off people and let users send an opening message to their friendship matches that they can be comfortable with.
There is not a person in the world who hasn’t on occasion been at a bit of a loss of what to say when meeting someone new. In person, it can be hard enough, but at least it’s over quickly. Online, you can have too much time to come up with the perfect opening line, to the point it just adds to the stress rather than relieving it. I have certainly drafted and re-drafted online messages numerous times, searching for that illusive, casual tone. The irony being: writing so many drafts and spending so much time on it is anything but casual. But it’s so hard to know how your messages will be received in tone when it arrives on the screen of the person you are talking to.
On Bumble BFF, users have a new solution for when this situation emerges and they have made a match. If no one has yet sent a first message – users can use the icebreaker tool. It generates three conversation starters for you, and uses the public profile information on the app to generate its options. Bumble provided some examples of what their icebreakers look like in a blog post:
- Hi [name]! I see we’re both at a similar stage of life right now—career-focused. What do you do for work? I’m always curious to learn about different career paths and industries.
- Hello [name]! As a foodie, do you have any recommendations for the best places to eat in [city location]? I’m always on the lookout for delicious brunch spots!
- Hi [name]! Have you ever been to any jazz clubs in [city location]? I’m a big fan of jazz and I’d love to know if there are any cool spots to check out.
You don’t have to use the prompt word for word of course, and are able to edit it to match your own voice and style. Those examples above look like they are very good prompts for ideas of what to ask about. I know I would be personally editing them heavily afterwards. But for some users, it would really take the pressure off entirely if they can have a handy conversation opener to send. In fact, it being not their own words could be a hidden bonus. If the person responds poorly, you can be safe in knowledge if it wasn’t your words that didn’t work.
AI prompts, tips and help are becoming a common theme in the world of social discovery. It could feed into a lazy stigma about the people who use such apps. Some people would wrongly suggest, people who use social discovery apps are socially inept. We know that’s not the case. People on these apps are primarily in poor circumstances for making friends, rather than being terrible at doing it in person. The use of AI icebreakers is just an extra tool to reduce awkwardness and speed things up. Sending that first message can so often be that one hurdle too many that stops people forging new connections – so it’s a very powerful idea to make that leap as easy as possible.
