The left-right swipe—responsible for countless situationships, accidental matches and at least one healthy relationship—may become a thing of the past.

“We are going to be saying goodbye to the swipe and hello to something that I believe is revolutionary for the category.” Bumble founder and CEO Whitney Wolfe Herd announced on The Axios Show.

Replacing the swipe is Bee, an AI assistant that utilises details shared by users about themselves—goals, communication style, preferences—to recommend compatible matches directly. Bee can also suggest date ideas and collect feedback to refine future matches.

The premise isn't too dissimilar to the Black Mirror episode “Hang the DJ”, where participants are paired in a dating simulation to determine their compatibility before being matched in the real world.

Bumble is also scrapping its signature rule requiring women to message first in heterosexual matches—essentially dismantling the two features that defined Bumble.

Cynics might note the timing. Bumble reported a 10 per cent revenue decline in the third quarter of 2025, with paying users falling by 16 per cent to 3.6 million. Its stock has dropped more than 90 per cent since its 2021 IPO.

Dr Madison Sideris, a dating culture researcher at Deakin University, sees the logic. Speaking to Farrago, she said: “Dating apps have been in decline since COVID—lower users, lower downloads. Some are calling it the death of the dating app. I think this is a big move in terms of them thinking: what can we do to shake things up? And they think AI is the way.”

Outsourcing romantic labour, though, has a long history. Human matchmakers have existed across cultures for millennia, and before apps there were platforms like Match.com that paired compatible users together with a human being behind the choice.

Caeleb, who met his girlfriend on Hinge, thinks Bee could improve the dating app experience. “This is how it used to be,” he said. “With AI it could be even better than it was.”

People on dating platforms can tend to cast a wide net to attract as many matches as possible, creating what Caeleb described as a “paradox of abundance”.

“You end up tailoring your profile to get as many matches as possible, then you end up having to sift through all these people—most of whom you have nothing in common with. It's absolutely cooked,” he said.

Jennifer Gray, a PhD candidate at Monash University studying dating culture, isn't buying it. “I don't think more and more technology is going to help,” she said.

“People are wanting that connection but they're not getting it. Using dating apps increases the number of people you come across, so of course it increases the number of rejections, disappointments and frustrations too.”

For Gray, what Bee can't replicate is stubbornly analogue. “There's nothing that technology—or even a third-party matchmaker—can do. That decision still has to come down to the individual. And then meeting the person, physically being in the same room with them, you get that physical connection. Is that there?”

The rollout on Bumble begins in select markets in the fourth quarter of 2026. Hinge has also begun experimenting with AI, adding a feature called “Signals” that highlights users it deems to have demonstrated consistent, thoughtful participation on the app—and who of course have uploaded the personal information.

With swipe fatigue on the rise, the question remains whether AI can meaningfully replace it and whether people even want it to.

Image source: Timon Schneider/Alamy