Update 1 (02/17/2022 @ 00:12 ET): Bumble has offered their statement on the feature. Scroll to the bottom for more information. The article as published on February 15, 2022, is preserved below.
In the world of dating apps, there are a handful of big players that people will typically gravitate towards. Tinder is one of the biggest, but another which has a significant foothold in the dating population is Bumble. Bumble is unique though, as while its flagship product that many know it for is its dating service, it also has the ability to match you with potential friends and potential business contacts. Now the company appears to be expanding into more of a social media platform offering, as we've found evidence of a new "Collectives" feature that essentially acts as a forum in BFF mode.
An APK teardown can often predict features that may arrive in a future update of an application, but it is possible that any of the features we mention here may not make it in a future release. This is because these features are currently unimplemented in the live build and may be pulled at any time by the developers in a future build.
Bumble tests "Collectives"
In Bumble's Collectives feature, you'll be faced with a number of different boards that you can jump into and discuss various different topics. From women in business to relationships and even financial management, there is seemingly something for everyone here. Bumble also has a notice that appears when you scroll to the bottom that stays that its community is still growing, suggesting that more forums and possibly even more sections will be added.
In our viewing of the feature, we were also able to get a look at how individual collectives work. Users can select a topic that they're interested in, and find a feed of posts discussing that topic. They can then comment on individual posts, where you can view the profiles of people who are posting. Tapping a user's icon will display their Bumble BFF profile, which is the stream of Bumble used for finding friends. Adding a post is easy, as simply clicking "new post" will allow you to add a post with a title and a body.
It's not clear when Bumble intends on launching this service, though I'd imagine it's pretty soon. The company appears to be testing the service as posts can currently be viewed from Bumble employees on individual forums, and a lot of tests appear to be automated. These basically appear to be forums for discussion, and we found evidence that suggests that you'll be able to get notifications about new posts in individual Collectives in the future.
We also found several hints for a "Hive" feature as well, but we weren't to enable it and aren't sure what exactly it may be. Bumble already had physical events that were called "Hive", yet this feature within the app appeared different to us. We hope to learn more soon.
Update: Bumble comments on the upcoming feature
Bumble has offered comments on the upcoming features:
We are currently testing new product features in our Bumble BFF community for a small number of people. We are assessing feedback from this test to help inform our final product decisions.
Thanks to PNF Software for providing us a license to use JEB Decompiler, a professional-grade reverse engineering tool for Android applications.