What Happened to Bumble BFF?

Bumble moved BFF into its own dedicated app, called BFF, for members in the United States, Canada and Mexico. BFF Mode inside the Bumble app is closing for those members, and Bumble's help center says that once it closes you can no longer reach your matches, messages or plans in BFF Mode. Members outside the three countries can still use BFF Mode and the Bumble For Friends app.

Bumble used to offer friendships in two places. One was a mode inside the Bumble app. The other was a separate app called Bumble For Friends.

The BFF app combines the two. It keeps what people used, and adds group chats, events, Groups, interest tags and photo prompts. Bumble also says every member of the BFF app has passed selfie verification, which is a stronger entry rule than the old mode had.

So the answer to "is it gone" is no. The service moved, and the place you used to reach it closed for members in those countries.

BFF is offered only in the United States, Canada and Mexico. Outside those countries, people can still use BFF Mode in the Bumble app and the Bumble For Friends app.

If you are in one of the three countries and the old screens are gone, that is the reason. Search your phone's app store for BFF and download it.

To move your page to the BFF app, Bumble says your phone number must be verified in the Bumble app before BFF Mode closes. You check it in the Bumble app under Settings, then Security and Privacy, then Ways you can log in.

This is the part men miss. Tell yourself to do it as soon as you read this, because it can only be done on the Bumble side before the old mode shuts.

Bumble says that once BFF Mode closes, you can no longer access your matches, chats or plans there. Other BFF pages say existing matches come along if both people have made the move, while chat history from the old mode does not.

So treat any chat in the old mode as something that may not survive. If a conversation is going well, move it. Swap phone numbers, or settle a plan for this week, and save anything you want to keep. A match that turns into a number is safe. A match that lives only in the old mode may disappear.

A fresh start can be a good thing, because the old mode never gave a man much repetition. A friendship needs the same people, again and again. The BFF app's Groups are the first feature that gets near that, because a Group around a shared interest gives you a place to keep showing up.

Pick one Group that matches something you already do. Say hello in the chat, reply to two or three people, and see who answers. That costs less than waving at strangers and gives you more to write about.

The selfie verification helps too. A friend app has little use for a person you cannot trust to be who they say, and verification takes some of the worry out of the first message.

An app moving house is a good reminder of how little any one app controls. Bumble can close a mode, rename it or move it, and your plans go with it.

So build the part you own. Put one regular activity in your week, such as a climbing class, a league or a volunteer shift, and go to the same one for a couple of months. Learn three names. Suggest a coffee after the third visit. Then let BFF be one way to add people, not the only way you have.

This is also what to say if someone asks what happened to the app. It moved. The better question is where you will meet the same people every week.

• Download the BFF app if you are in the United States, Canada or Mexico
• Check that your phone number is verified in the Bumble app
• Move any good chat to a phone number or a plan
• Pick one Group around something you already enjoy
• Add one weekly activity that does not depend on any app