Bumble Just Launched a Feature To Get Rid of Catfish Profiles
You’re not exactly the type to fall for a serious, MTV-worthy catfish. I mean, c’mon, you’re more savvy than that.
But that doesn’t mean that there aren’t times when you swipe by profiles that look a little to good to be true, or that look suspiciously like a Tumblr famous dude that you’ve seen before. And even the most experienced daters (myself included) have gone on a date only to find that the dude looks a lot different in person.
Well thankfully, Bumble, truly a dating app of the people, is working to eliminate catfishes once and for all.
Their new feature, photo verification, allows users to verify themselves with selfies to let their potential matches know that they’re the real deal and not some 40 year old man looking for a cheap thrill.
The process is explained further on their blog, but trust us, it’s as easy as it sounds. Who minds taking a few extra selfies?
If you stumble upon a profile that looks a bit sketch and you report them, they’ll be instructed to photo verify themselves. If they don’t pass verification, they’ll be kicked off Bumble and be forced to troll on another lower tech dating app…maybe Hinge?
Sure, the creeper could potentially make another fake profile, but it would take them a sh*tload of effort, especially because Bumble flags new accounts that are made with Facebook accounts with little to no friends.
“Yes they could create a new account, but not without significant effort on their part,” explained Alex Williamson, Bumble’s VP of Brand Content, to Galore. “They would likely be flagged immediately again for having used an inactive Facebook account. Lastly, logging in with a new account would mean losing all matches and profile content as well as starting over with another account that has not been verified. Plus, in some cases we lock profiles that are violators of our terms and they cannot login again with their known mobile device.”
In other words, you’ll be swiping way less creeps, wannabes, and potential stalkers, which is how Bumble intends it to be. Unfortunately, they can’t build a feature to protect against dudes who ghost, but we can’t have it all. At least, not yet.
