It's official: Bumble no longer requires women to send the first message

Bumble's new "Opening Moves" feature means women no longer have to make the first move for the first time in the dating app's 10-year history.

• Bumble is getting rid of its signature requirement that women start the conversation — well, sort of.
• The dating app is introducing a feature called "Opening Moves."
• It lets women set a question all matches can respond to, meaning men might be the first to message.

Bumble is doing away with its defining feature that required women to make the first move.

The dating app on Tuesday announced something called "Opening Moves," which will see men sending the first messages in some cases.

Starting Tuesday, the feature lets women set a question that all their matches can answer to get the conversation started. They can choose one of the questions Bumble offers or create their own. In nonbinary or same-sex matches, either person can set or reply to the question.

Bumble CEO Lidiane Jones said in a press release that the option represented a shift "from a fixed approach to giving women more options in how they engage."

"In listening to our community, many have shared their exhaustion with the current online dating experience, and for some, that includes making the first move," she said. "We're also hearing from women that empowerment today is not only about control but it's also about agency, and we're excited to offer more choice in how women make the first move with our new Opening Moves feature."

Bumble found in testing that Opening Moves increased "chat initiation and reply rates, as well as lengthening time spent in conversation," the release said.

Jones had recently hinted that Bumble might move away from making women reach out first. In a fourth-quarter earnings call last month, she told investors that making the first move "feels like a burden for a subset of our customers today."

The change marks the first time Bumble will let men reach out first since the app was founded in 2014 by former CEO Whitney Wolfe Herd.

Beyond Opening Moves, Bumble is shaking up its look with a redesign, one of several changes it's made since Jones took over as CEO in January.