Although Bumble’s messaging time limits are designed to limit ghosting, sometimes something spooky happens. I’m talking about when a conversation disappears.
And it sucks. You’ve been getting on well with a match. It doesn’t even have to be love at first swipe, but once sparks are flying in a conversation we’re all hoping it’s going to go somewhere.
And then bang. Maria from the next town over disappears into the ether.
It leaves a lot of unanswered questions. Did Maria hook up with an ex and ride off into the sunset? Was she banned on Bumble for posting bikini pics on Bumble Bizz? Was it… aliens?
Not to mention that you’re left wondering if you did something wrong.
I want to stress that you shouldn’t let this get to you. There are a ton of reasons why conversations disappear on Bumble and it’s rarely a reflection of your chat game. Let’s find out what they are.
What Does It Mean If A Conversation Disappears On Bumble?
So you were just about to seal the deal with Maria and swoop for a phone number or a real-life date. But then she set her location to Rachel, Nevada, and when you open up the app and the Bumble conversation is gone. Now what?
So what does it mean if a conversation disappears on Bumble? The most likely scenarios are that they unmatched you, either by accident or intentionally, or they deleted their account. You may also have filtered the conversation out by accident.
Here are all the possible reasons for a conversation disappearing on Bumble:
- They unmatched you (either intentionally or by accident).
- They blocked you.
- They deleted their Bumble account.
- Bumble banned the user for violation of the Bumble Community Guidelines.
- You’ve hidden the chat with a filter.
- You’ve accidentally unmatched them.
- The conversation expired.
- It’s a glitch.
It sucks to have a disappeared Bumble match, especially when it’s going well. Depending on the reason you might be able to recover the chat.
How To Get The Bumble Match Back
Unfortunately, most of these mean the conversation can’t be recovered, but there’s hope if you simply filtered out the chat.
Here’s how to filter Bumble chats: Tap on the Filter underneath your Bumble Match Queue. Bumble lets you filter by Unread, Recent, and Nearby. If you switched to Unread by mistake, all your open chats will have disappeared.
And if a conversation expired because you took more than 24 hours to reply, then you might come across them again in the swipe deck. Bumble believes in second chances.
Otherwise, I’m sorry to tell you that match is gone for good. Bumble themselves say that a deleted match can’t be recovered. And banned users can only reappear with a new account.
Unless you took note of their Instagram account or where they worked, then you’ll have to move on. But before you reach out to someone off the app, try to figure out if there were any hints that they might not have been that into it. If they unmatched or blocked you then you should give them space.
If the conversation disappeared out of nowhere, then it might have been a glitch or an accidental unmatch (although Bumble makes that pretty hard and asks for additional confirmation).
It would be nice to believe that all our disappeared conversations are technical glitches! In fact, every time I get dumped or fired I’m going to blame it on a glitch from now on.
Does Bumble Tell You If Someone Unmatched?
Getting unmatched sucks. You busted out all your best lines, your smoothest moves, and your iconic GIFs, and she bails out? But what’s worse is not knowing. Did she delete her profile, unmatch you, or was she abducted by aliens?
So does Bumble tell you if someone unmatched? Yes. If you’ve been unmatched you’ll still see their name greyed out in your chats. You’ll no longer be able to view their pictures or read their messages.
Gone are the days when being unmatched would leave you in the dark. Now Bumble offers their users some closure, as well as the chance to report users who have unmatched them.
Don’t be too hard on yourself if this happens. Sure, it’s worth reflecting on whether your risque jokes fell on the wrong side of the line or your dry humor didn’t hit home, but people unmatch for superficial reasons all the time. It’s no reflection on your Bumble game.
Plus, the aliens that abducted them could always have forced them to unmatch you.
Does Bumble Tell You If Someone Deleted Their Profile?
Another common reason for a conversation disappearing is if someone deletes their profile. Maybe they got sick of Bumble or started a committed relationship in real life.
So does Bumble tell you if someone deleted their profile? Yes. The conversation will remain in your chat history, but their name will be replaced by “Deleted Profile” and they’ll have a stock cut-out profile picture.
Again, this is nothing to take personally. People delete their online dating accounts all the time and it’s not a reflection of you. But if your openers are so bad that people are fleeing Bumble, then you should definitely be working on them!
When someone deletes their profile, Bumble won’t delete your conversation history with that deleted user. You might have a chance to reconnect if they shared their contact information in there.
What Is Hiding A Chat On Bumble?
If you’ve got a ton of ongoing chats on Bumble, you might have trouble sorting through them… Okay Cassanova, I get it. You’re drowning in matches.
In this somewhat unlikely scenario, you might have accidentally hidden a chat on Bumble. And now it looks like it’s disappeared.
So what is hiding a chat on Bumble? Bumble lets you filter your conversations by “Unread”, “Recent” and “Nearby”. If you change these settings then the visible conversations in your chats tab will change.
For example, if you usually have it set to “Recent” and then you hit “Unread” by accident, all your opened messages will disappear. Don’t panic, they’ve not gone anywhere!
Here’s how to change your filter settings in Bumble Chats:
- Open up the Bumble app.
- Hit the speech bubble icon to go to the Conversations tab.
- Tap on Unread/Recent/Nearby underneath your Match Queue.
- See if your lost conversation reappears!
If the conversation you’re looking for doesn’t turn up by changing the settings, then unfortunately they’re gone for good. Whether it’s a technical issue or those damn UFOs again, I can’t tell you.
Why Do Bumble Matches Disappear?
Sometimes a match will vanish before the conversation even starts. Huh? It feels like you never got a fair shot.
So why do Bumble Matches disappear? Bumble matches have a 24-hour time limit in which to start messaging. If the female user doesn’t make the first move within this timeframe, the match will expire. Everyone gets one free Extend each day which lets them add an extra 24 hours before the match expires.
And once a woman has sent the first message, the guy has 24 hours to respond. Once you’ve each sent a message, there aren’t any more time limits and you can chat at your own pace.
Bumble designed the 24-hour limit to reduce ghosting. Once you match, there’s a strong incentive to message right away. But unfortunately, it does occasionally lead to new matches disappearing.
Luckily, Bumble gives expired matches a second chance. You can rematch by finding each other again in the swipe deck. If you’re a Bumble Boost subscriber or Bumble Premium user then you can rematch with an expired match instantly using the Rematch feature.
Paid Bumble users also get unlimited access to the Extend feature.
Wrapping Up
Bumble is one of the most popular dating apps in America. If a conversation disappears, don’t stress out about it – just keep swiping because there are plenty more bees in the sea.
Conversations can disappear for all sorts of reasons, from unmatching to deleted accounts to technical glitches that may or may not be to do with secret government experiments in Area 51.
And if you feel like experimenting yourself, then why not try a new dating app? Find out which one will work for you with my dating app quiz.
