March 28, 2024

How To Extend Matches in Bumble

Extending matches in Bumble is something you either do all the time or don’t do at all depending on your point of view. Some users consider it an act of desperation that rarely, if ever, results in a conversation. Others view it as a hail Mary thrown into the ring as there is nothing to lose.

Either way, knowing how to extend matches in Bumble is something every user needs.

Bumble is different to other dating apps and it either works for you or against you. With women having all the power and men not being able to initiate contact, the dynamic has completely changed. Men have to seriously up their game with their profile and images and women have to worry less about meeting those kinds of guys that put them off other dating apps.

If you both swipe right and match in dating mode, the woman has only 24 hours to initiate contact otherwise that match expires. If that happens you go back into the mix and will reappear in their queue at some point. Depending on where you live, that could be days, weeks or months. If you do find someone you like but genuinely don’t have the time to chat, you can extend the match.

Extending matches in Bumble

If you’re a free user of Bumble, you can extend one match per day. If you use Bumble Boost, the paid part of the app, you can do it more often. If you want to extend your match, just open the expiring match profile and select ‘Extend This Match’. You will get a further 24 hours within which to initiate a conversation or have one initiated for you.

Once the extension has expired you cannot extend it further. Even Bumble Boost users cannot extend their matches further than the 48 hour limit. Once expired, the profile will go back into the pool and will likely appear again at some point. Exactly when depends on how many Bumble users are in your area.

Does extending matches in Bumble work?

As with all elements of dating, there is a lot of psychology at work when it comes to matching. The question of whether it’s a good idea to extend a match or not depends on you, the person you matched with and how you view the whole dating scene.

Here are five views on extending matches that I collected while researching a number of pieces on Bumble. Which do you identify with the most?

  1. If you like someone, extending is just another opportunity to say hi. If you were in real life, you would do whatever necessary to get that initial greeting. Even if it didn’t go well, you would know. So there is nothing wrong with extending if you like someone.
  2. Extending comes across as a little desperate. That is especially true if you’re a guy. If you match with a girl and she genuinely likes what she sees she will chat, if only to say hi. Extending on a girl seems a little desperate and isn’t likely to be received any better than the initial match.
  3. Sometimes people are just busy. A match may come up and I’m on the bus or waiting for a meeting to start. I get a match and then the meeting starts or I arrive at my destination. The day runs away with me and before I know it, the next day is here and it begins again. Sometimes, 24 hours is just not long enough so extending a match is useful.
  4. It just takes a second to chat and say ‘Hi, how you doin’. If someone hasn’t made at least that effort, why are they on Bumble? If they cannot spend a second setting a marker with even the simplest chat, why match with people at all? People shouldn’t need extensions. We check our phones all the time and it’s not like you have to put together a thesis on why you like them. It’s just a simple hello.
  5. Some girls only ever talk to guys who extend on them as they need the ego boost. They know they are hot and expect men to work harder for it. If she is hot enough to get lots of matches, she is hot enough to wait for the extensions where she can filter them even further for the one who will buy her the most dinners or drinks.

Extending matches in Bumble is simple once you know how. The mechanics of extending may be straightforward but the psychology behind it is as much of a minefield as the rest of online dating. Wherever you sit on extending, or not, there is no doubt that a little effort pays off. Just what form that effort takes is entirely up to you!

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