Bumble is doubling down on friendship with the relaunch of its Bumble For Friends (BFF) app, shifting its strategy from one-on-one matches to broader group and community connections.
The move comes as friendship apps gain traction among younger generations eager to expand their social circles beyond dating.
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The revamped BFF experience introduces a Groups tab, designed to help users discover communities, join chat rooms, plan hangouts, and track events with an integrated calendar. Whether it’s a small hobby cluster or a city-wide social hub, the app is positioning itself as a go-to space for collective connections.
The update is built on Geneva, the community-focused platform Bumble acquired last year. As a result, Geneva will shut down, though its members won’t lose out. Existing groups and chats will automatically migrate to BFF.
One-on-one matching and private DMs will remain core features, but the group experience is clearly the centerpiece of the relaunch. While users can already create or join groups, the group discovery function won’t roll out until February 2026.
This evolution comes at a time when competition is heating up. Newcomers like Clockout, Clyx, Les Amis, Timeleft, and 222 are all targeting the growing demand for friendship-first platforms. Bumble, which has been in the space longer than most, is looking to maintain its edge.
The company says the strategy is rooted in changing user behavior. Nearly half of young adults (47%) report wanting more friends for activities, and a similar share are actively seeking online platforms to build local communities.
That social emphasis has been part of Bumble’s roadmap for some time. Back in late 2023, then-CEO Lidiane Jones explained:
“Going forward, we will focus our reinvestment to accelerate a bolder strategy for Bumble For Friends, one that will focus on building equitable and safe friendships across communities of people with similar interests that want real-life connections.”
With the relaunch, Bumble BFF is staking its claim: friendships aren’t just one-to-one, they’re a community.
