What I enjoy most about being a blogger is finding new things that I love and then being able to share that with all of you! Recently I’ve been working with the team at Bumble Australia and their feature, Bumble BFF. If you’re not familiar with Bumble, it’s an app that’s used for dating, friendship and networking. It’s all about the girls’ first move – if you swipe right to a person you want to connect with, you have 24 hours to speak to them or they disappear forever! I’m happily taken, so I don’t have the need for a dating app, BUT what I love about Bumble is the fact that Bumble BFF exists.
Bumble BFF does exactly what the name says it does and helps you find new friends! Whether you’re looking for a BFF soulmate, wing woman, tour guide or movie buff, the app is a place where you can meet people that share the same interests as you.I’m always for the idea of girl power, and I think it’s so amazing when likeminded women come together and encourage each other through life. With a solid girl group, you are able to build confidence and love in each other, to become better people.
I find it hard to always meet people that I can instantly connect with since I’m always either travelling, working or attending classes at university, so Bumble BFF would be perfect for someone like me! I decided to try the app to find new friends and this is how it went:
CREATING A PROFILE
Creating a profile was a lot easier than I expected. I connected my Bumble sign up with Facebook and it automatically transferred my information over (Name, age and University). The photos that were imported were my most recent Facebook profile photos, which were some very old ones! My first guess was that the app takes the work out of building a profile, but if you want to change all the displayed photos (like me), you can edit your profile and upload the photos you want. The hardest thing I found was writing an ‘About Me’ section. I was only limited to 300 characters so I tried really hard to sound as interesting and as me as possible!
In the end, I went with “Marketer and fashion blogger that loves to take too many photos! Join me if you love brunching, travelling, netflix and all things dog.”, as well as adding a handle to my Instagram page.
A good tip I recommend is to set your parameters on the setting tab right next to your profile. That way you can get the most out of your BFF search! I set my distance to be about ~40km because I live that far from the city. For the ages, I wanted to meet people that were around the same age as I was, so I picked to see those aged 19-25.
FINDING FRIENDS
If you’re used to the traditional way of meeting friends, I’d say that this process can be a little overwhelming and is heavily based on first impressions. Bumble BFF works the same way that Bumble does. You’re shown someone’s profile and can swipe right if you’re interested in getting to know them more, or swipe left if you feel like you won’t have much in common.
I’m so impressed by the amount of girls on this App!! I feel like I spent ages scrolling through everyone’s profiles and pictures, and there were so many different ladies I felt like I could connect to and be potential BFF’s with. I found that there were a lot of different careers these girls are in, such as computer programmer, nurse, technician and marketing officer. Not only this but everyone’s profile was so funny and down to earth, I already felt like I could get to know some of these girls a lot more, just by reading a little bit about them. Personally, I was looking for a friend that would love fashion and beauty like I do, and wouldn’t mind going on cute brunch dates where she would be my sometimes photographer.
CONNECTING WITH FRIENDS
I had swiped left and right to a couple of people and probably spent about 15 mins doing that before I headed and tried to make conversations with a few of my potential BFF’s! Like I mentioned earlier, there are sooo many I found that had the same interests as me and it wasn’t long until I found those that I felt I could connect with instantly.
How Bumble BFF works is that you only get 24 hours to respond to your match or they disappear back into the pile of friends! So I do recommend you to check back once in a while and make conversation with those that you want to chat with before you forget. Of course I was nervous to say something (This is really starting to feel like dating), but just like how all friendships are made, someone needs to start talking first. Due to privacy reasons, I won’t share the conversations I had but I can tell you about my favourite 3 interactions with these awesome ladies!
Coby, dog lover and university student 🐶
I knew Coby and I would have a lot in common from the moment when I saw she had her dog in her photo and also went to the same university as me! I messaged saying I loved her display photo and that I was also a student, and she responded a while later with some questions about what I study, etc. Turns out, we’re in the same faculty, live not quite far from each other and both love to take our dogs to the dog park. It feels great to now have someone that I can message to go to the park with and to talk to if I need any help for course work. She’s also super trendy and I love her style!
Sierra, Melbournian and pizza lover 🍕
The first thing that caught my eye about Sierra was that she was originally from Melbourne then moved to Sydney. I just took a short trip to Melbourne and absolutely fell in love with the city, and I don’t get to meet a lot of people in Sydney that were originally from Melbourne, so I thought this was a great opportunity to connect. From her bio, I also found that she loves pizza and watching Netflix which happens to also be my favourite hobbies too. I already felt like I knew what I could talk to her about and she looked like a fun and outgoing person.
Eva, Blogger 📷
I never thought I would stumble across another blogger on Bumble BFF but I did! The blogging world is still such a niche industry and I love connecting with other bloggers. It’s refreshing to hear about it from another perspective and I’ve always had tremendous respect for other content creators. I decided to connect with Eva because it seemed like we both had the same goals and were looking for other bloggers who we could hang out with and possibly even go for a photo shoot at some stage!
AND THE REST IS HISTORY
After you’ve made your profile, found friends and connected with them, the rest is simply history and the ball is in your court. Do you decide to meet up for girly gossip over drinks, or simply have an online BFF you know will be there when you need her? It’s up to you, really! That’s the beauty of Bumble BFF – the app connects you to all these amazing likeminded women, where you’re guaranteed to find a bestie that will fit any criteria you’re looking for. My girlfriends have been there for me through thick and thin, and I’m open to adding more to my hive, and even introducing my new best friend to my other best friends. Growing up, I’ve realised the importance of having a girl gang that is fostered on nothing but respect and love for each other so for anyone who is missing this in their life or just looking to expand their circle, I highly recommend you try Bumble BFF, because its amazing how many people you can find looking for the same thing!
P.S: THIS APP IS NOT LIMITED TO JUST FEMALES! MALE BUMBLE USERS CAN ALSO LOOK FOR THEIR MANBFF THROUGH THE SAME WAY!
Happy friending and I hope you find your best friend soon x