Bumble: Dating app puts first move into hands of women

LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- A free mobile dating app is helping to connect singles in a new way.

It's called Bumble, and much like Tinder, it uses Facebook profiles to create an account and allows the user to swipe right for someone they like and swipe left to dismiss someone.

If both parties swipe right, it creates a connection. But this is where Bumble is different.

If a woman and man both like each other's profiles, only the woman is allowed to initiate the conversation.

And she only has 24 hours to do so.

"I like that I have control of who I write," Elana Feldman of Los Alamitos said. "I have to say the men are like 10 times more attractive on Bumble."

Think of Bumble as the Sadie Hawkins dance of mobile dating.

"I like the control because there are so many creeps out there and I don't always like the messages that I receive," Feldman said. "So I have the control of connecting with that person on my time with what I want to say."

So if the swiping process of Bumble feels a lot like the dating app Tinder, that's no coincidence. Whitney Wolfe helped to grow Tinder, but she left the company and later sued it for sexual harassment.

"She left Tinder and not on great terms and eventually she just decided to create her own mobile app and I think it's terrific that she's empowering women everywhere," mobile dating expert Julie Spira said.

Spira has written about cyber dating for years she now coaches mobile daters. She said Bumble is a favorite with her male clients.

"When a woman initiates a conversation, a man has a greater chance of having a match and hopefully meeting," Spira said.

While making the first move has its upsides, Feldman said there are downsides also.

"The intimidating factor is though sometimes it takes a lot to write someone and then you write them and they don't write back," Feldman said.

For same sex connections, either person has 24 hours to make the first move.

The Bumble headquarters are in Austin, Texas and the company said of its 13 employees, 12 are women.