Bumble’s New Safety Tool Stops Jerks From Using the ‘Unmatch’ Function to Ghost Victims

As anyone who has ever used a dating app will know, these babies can be, er… interesting to navigate. While they’re wonderful for introducing people, there is an element of safety that has to be considered. When you do combine all kinds of people there, sadly, is a chance that things will go wrong.

And as recent studies into dating apps and safety have highlighted, there are gaps in the way many of these apps protect their users.

One of these gaps has been found in the unmatch feature. The problem here is when someone who has engaged in anything from inappropriate to abusive behaviour unmatches with their date, their chat history and profile disappears.

By doing this, the person who has been unmatched with no longer has easy access to the report function in the app. This can be anything from inconvenient to a roadblock to reporting dangerous users.

Naturally, this finding received a lot of attention, and a widespread call out to change the way the unmatch feature works, followed.

This week, we’ve seen a new update in the dating app world, with Bumble announcing it is doing precisely that. The app has revealed its latest update will introduce a new step to the unmatch process.

This is how it works:

When a user unmatches with someone, their chat and match will be removed from their account.

The person who has been unmatched with will see this chat has been greyed out. They’ll then be shown a message from Bumble offering a “Help” option and access to support. If they wish, they can just exit the interaction, or take steps to report unsavoury behaviour.

Bumble are first to market with this feature, and it offers a comforting picture of the ways in which dating apps can move forward in this area.

There are still big issues when it comes to safety in digital dating – how reports are managed is a clear example. But this unmatch update, combined with measures like photo verification and the monitoring sending of photos, is a positive step.

1800Respect offers 24-hour support to those impacted by sexual assault, domestic or family violence and abuse.