To try and curb “ghosting” on dating apps, Bumble has just introduced a new feature designed to stop the recent dating trend.
Ghosting is when someone suddenly cuts off all communication with a person they are dating, or chatting to, without any explanation.
Recent studies have found that many daters have experienced this behaviour, with a Plenty of Fish survey last month finding that 80% of users said they had been ghosted.
So in an attempt to stop this, Bumble has just updated its dating product so that every chat that is started requires a reply within 24 hours, or the match is deleted.
Previously, it was only women who had a 24 hour window to initiate conversation with their matches.
And although women do still have to make the first move – Bumble’s main USP – now both parties have a 24 hour time limit for their matches.
However if someone initiates and their match replies, this connection “stays forever”.
Although the term of ghosting refers more to ending a relationship by ceasing communication, it is also something daters are increasingly experiencing on dating apps – with people they connect with, or go on a date with, simply stopping replying to their messages.
As PlentyofFish’s Kate MacLean said, because of the broader access to the dating pool online dating gives you, the likelihood of running into a match is low, so many millennials opt to simply cease communication as a way of breaking it off.