How Do You Change Your Location on Bumble?

Not directly. Bumble says your phone's GPS sets your location automatically, and that your general location cannot be customized. What you can change is the city you list as where you live, your hometown, how far out you search with the distance filter, and, with Premium or Premium+, where you appear through Travel Mode.

Bumble's page on updating your location puts it simply: your phone's GPS decides where you are on Bumble. It adds that you see other members based on their real-time location. You can update what your page shows about where you live and where you are from, but your general location cannot be customized.

So who you see depends on where your phone actually is. Everything else on this list changes what women read about you, or how far out you look.

To change the city shown on your page:

1. Open your profile page.
2. Tap Edit profile.
3. Scroll down to About you and tap Location or Hometown.
4. Add or update the city you live in, or the one you are closest to.

Bumble is clear that this is about what your page shows. Your general location still comes from your phone.

Keep the city honest. If you live just outside a city, naming the nearest one is fine, and Bumble's own wording allows the city you are closest to. Listing a city you do not live in, to look more interesting, only makes your first conversation awkward.

If you want to see women from farther away, adjust your distance filter. Bumble says you can expand your search area at any time this way, though the distance filter is only available in some countries. You find it with your other filters, through the filter icon at the top right of the People tab.

A slightly wider radius is also one of Bumble's own tips for meeting more compatible people. Just be realistic about it. A woman forty minutes away is a real option for a weekend date. A woman three hours away is a pen pal.

When you are heading somewhere, Travel Mode is Bumble's official way to appear there early. Bumble's page on using the app while traveling explains how it works:

• It needs a Bumble Premium or Premium+ subscription.
• You turn it on from the settings icon in your profile tab, under location, then search for the place you want to visit.
• Your People tab fills with people from that place, and you can only appear in one location at a time.
• It does not change your actual GPS. You are only in that place virtually.
• Your page shows a travel mode banner while it is on.

The banner works in your favor. Anyone who sees your page can tell you are visiting, so nobody is misled about where you live.

One detail is worth knowing before you switch it on. Bumble says that if you liked someone at home and she has Premium, she can still find you in her Liked You tab and match from there. If she does not have Premium, she may not see you again to like you back, because you now appear only in your travel location. So answer the chats you have at home before you leave.

Bumble follows your phone, so once you are living somewhere new, your GPS places you there. Update the city under About you so your page matches where you actually live.

If every photo you have is from the old city, add one or two from the new one when you can. A woman deciding whether to meet you likes seeing that you actually live near her, not just passing through.

Never try to fake a location to look local. If you use Travel Mode before a trip, say so early in your messages with your matches. Tell her when you arrive, how long you are staying, and suggest a plan to meet while you are there.

Something like this works: "Heads up, I am in town for work from Tuesday to Saturday next week. If your taco recommendation is as good as you say, you are showing me." It is honest, it tells her when, and it turns her own answer into a plan.

A woman who knows the timing can say yes to a drink on Thursday. A woman who finds out halfway through the chat that you are not local feels misled, and she usually stops replying. Clear dates and an honest location get you further than any trick.