Bumble, the women-first social networking and dating app, has launched ‘Voice Calls & Video Chat,’ allowing users to call each other within the app.
Bumble users will now be able to call each other within the app without having to exchange personal contact information, said the company in a press release. It added that users will be able to have “a close to ‘real life’ connection experience without exhausting all the time and expense associated with dating and meeting in person.”
Bumble’s founder and CEO Whitney Wolfe Herd said the company wanted to keep the safety of its users a number one priority when developing the feature.e
“At Bumble, we’ve not only invested heavily in user safety we’ve also worked tirelessly to engineer good behaviour both in and out of app through product, features and legislation designed to do just that,” Herd said. “Voice Calls & Video Chat further reinforce our dedication to creating the safest and most empowering space for creating new connections in love, friendship and professional networking.”
This isn’t the first time Bumble has worked on features to protect its users. In April, the app launched a feature called ‘Private Detector’ that automatically blurs any inappropriate images or content that is shared within a chat. The feature notifies users that they’ve received an explicit image, and then gives the option to open the photo, block it, or even report it to Bumble moderators.
For users that are interested in activating the feature, they first have to be matched with each other and have initiated a text chat conversation. Once that is complete, users will see a handset and video icon that automatically activates the feature.
Bumble said users do not have to exchange any contact information or personal data to call each other within Bumble. The company said all content from video and voice calls will be immediately deleted and never archived.
Bumble is the first dating app to feature in-app video and voice calling, according to The Verge.
