Is your age wrong on Bumble? Are you wondering why?
I know, I know, we don’t always sign up for things while we’re in the best of conditions. Sometimes it’s all a bit of a blur, with the next few days being a series of mystery packages turning up from Amazon, finding abandoned pizza slices in weird places, and a whole bunch of new apps on your phone.
What did you get up to? Who have you been talking to? And why are all your personal details wrong?
Sorry to break it to you but probably due to an error while signing up. Bumble doesn’t change your personal details, so the likelihood is you either made a mistake while entering it, or your age is wrong on Facebook and that is linked to your Bumble account.
Don’t worry though, now that you’re back on top of things and totally in control of everything, it’s not going to be hard to fix some of the mistakes you made.
Not sure if the returns policy on the ride-on mower will cover the cutting the carpet incident though. Or how exactly you’re going to explain it to your building manager? Ah well, let’s fix something easier!
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How Do I Fix My Age On Bumble?
This depends on your sign-up method, but if you’re wondering ‘How do I fix my age on Bumble?’, you’ll probably either need to correct your details on Facebook or contact Bumble directly.
If you signed up via Facebook Connect then Bumble has just pulled your information straight from Facebook. This is a quick and easy way to set up a profile but it also pulls any errors on your Facebook account over to Bumble.
Obviously, this doesn’t matter on Facebook, where you haven’t put the right age in to try and disrupt Zuck’s advertising algorithm and it’s hilarious to be advertised things for an eighty-year-old.
Reading glasses! Prunes! Ear trumpets! But now Bumble is saying you’re eighty as well and the matches are… unusual.
The first thing to try here is to open your Facebook account, then
- Go to your PROFILE
- Click on ABOUT
- Click on CONTACT AND BASIC INFO
- Fix your date of birth.
To discourage scams and identity theft Facebook only lets you change this a limited number of times, so don’t get trigger-happy on pretending to be from a different decade every couple of days otherwise you could very easily end up locked out of your account.
If you set up an account from scratch using a phone number you’ll have to contact Bumble directly to correct your age. You can do this in the app itself by clicking through to support or filling out this form here.
They both take you to the same form so the process is the same. For step one, you’re going to select ‘REPORT A TECHNICAL ISSUE’ and for step two select ‘PROFILE + PHOTOS’.
Then in step three text boxes, you are going to describe how sometimes you forget when you were born and it’s very embarrassing but could they please fix it for you?
Actually, very few people can remember being born, so don’t be too embarrassed.
Do You Have To Put Your Age On Bumble?
Okay, one way to avoid this problem would be to sidestep including your age at all. So, do you have to put your age on Bumble?
Yes. Part of Bumble’s matching criteria is driven by your age.
Your age will either be pulled from a Facebook account, or you’ll be asked when your birthday is on creating a new account. Age is compulsory for two reasons. One, the app is 18+, and two, you are able to select an age range for your matches.
If you want the people who are finding you in their queue to be actually looking for someone like you, it makes sense for your age to be correct. Otherwise, things can get… unexpected.
No judgment if you’re there looking for something a little atypical. You do you. You know what you’re into and what it is you want. Go charm that foxy grandma. IF YOU CAN. But there’s not a huge advantage to be found in tweaking your age by a year or two to try and fit into more people’s search criteria.
If you’re trying to make a meaningful difference you’re looking at having to change it by about ten years, and this is going to introduce doubt into your profile.
Details not matching with pictures is a way for both you and the apps themselves to identify fake profiles, so don’t ruin your own legitimacy because you reckon there might be a way to overclock your potential match pool.
Also, because Bumble puts such an emphasis on user well-being and safety you don’t want to be getting regularly reported for something so minor. As always, play the hand you’ve been dealt the best way you can.
Anyway, it seems that to a lesser extent, Bumble does show you to people outside your age range.
Can You Be 17 On Bumble?
That’s a hard no there, champ. Bumble is strictly 18+.
For a while, Bumble was experimenting with a service for teens, but unsurprisingly the combination of this within an existing matching service for adults was a TERRIBLE IDEA. It’s a rare misstep from a company that has been so interested in equalizing the dating playing field and focusing on user safety.
They have since removed this ‘ahem’ feature. I mean seriously, have they heard of the internet? What did they think was going to happen?
Further confusion can be added into the equation with the fact that on the app and play stores the app is rated 17+. But this is just the way that Apple and Google rate things. 17+ is the highest restriction an app can get, not guidelines on who can use it.
Despite these original areas for confusion, it’s still pretty clear now. Bumble is a matching service for people eighteen and over. No grey areas, no exceptions, no what-ifs.
And with a couple of high-profile mistakes in their formative years, they’re pretty militant about protecting both their users and reputation.
So, yeah. It’s a no. Be patient.
Obviously, if you’ve been accidentally recorded as 17 and aren’t, follow the steps above to get your account sorted out.
So now we know, you can be too young for Bumble. But can you be too old? Well, put on your reading glasses, grab some prunes, and stick your ear trumpet in. Let’s go answer the question Is Bumble for over fifty-year-olds?
Of course, if age isn’t the problem then maybe Bumble just isn’t the app for you. If you’re worried this is the case, then you can have a go at my dating app quiz to determine the best app or dating site to suit your needs right now.
