A match on Bumble is worth 20 matches on Tinder

When I asked a female friend to recommend a dating app, she suggested Bumble. She’s serially dates using apps and had concluded Tinder was full of dickheads, and Happn was second to Bumble. When I asked my male housemate the same question, he laughed at the idea of Bumble. “At least Tinder is a level playing field. When you remove the option of men talking first, you start out with the wrong power balance.”

I squinted and concluded that he was worried that girls wouldn’t match with him on Bumble.

Then I downloaded both. I wanted to avoid aggressively sexual advances, I swiped only when I liked the look of a person – including their pose, setting and selection – and hoped this would protect me. On the other hand, my friend swipes right when she sees abs. The pictures exemplify the difference in approach on each app.

So far, so good with Bumble. Tinder?

I spent time conjuring a casual opener on Bumble; on Tinder, people do what they like.

This is the sort of match you get on Bumble: a graduate in their early twenties.

And this is the sort of thing you get on Tinder:

This guy is likely a Google stock image that someone is using as an avatar. This ruse will not survive: when the man turns up it will be clear those abs aren’t his. On Bumble you must initiate within 24 hours, and I never have to block anyone straight off. I know that a match is likely to be looking for more than sex. Wanting sex is fine, but I don’t want to be contacted about it before our first date.

I get that both these apps are superficial, but at least Bumble has some thought put in and they’ve fixed a few of the bugs of Tinder. Now they just need to get GIFs.