Bumble, the women-first dating app, has released its annual dating trends for 2024. The popular dating app has garnered insights from more than 25,000 singles on Bumble around the world to identify trends that will define dating and relationships in the year to come.

Looking ahead, 2024 is set to be the year of “self” in dating and relationships with more people looking inwards at what they value and want.

This personal prioritization sees singles rejecting the constant strive for perfection, discarding outdated timelines, challenging “jobification” and placing more value on emotional vulnerability, self-acceptance and shared priorities.

Bumble’s dating trend predictions:

Timeline decline. People, especially women, continue to feel a constant pressure to follow traditional relationship timelines. There will be a decline of timelines in favor of women choosing to actively build their own path, with one in three (31 percent) Filipino women saying they are no longer focused on adhering to traditional timelines and milestones. This is reflected in intentions with nearly three in four of women looking for a long-term relationship and less than one-third seeking marriage. For nearly half (43 percent) of women, this means only dating people who have the same perspective on timelines and milestones. And for a quarter of women in the Philippines, this means actively avoiding friends and family who put pressure on them, especially during holiday celebrations.

Gen(erational)-blend romance. Building on dating beyond your “type,” there has been an increase in cross-generational relationships. Singles on Bumble are increasingly open to connections with both older and younger. For two in three (63 percent) people surveyed globally, age is not a defining factor when dating with more than half of women saying they are now more open to dating someone younger than them. In the Philippines specifically, four in five men are now more open to dating older women.

Val-Core dating. Singles today are looking for shared priorities and expect their partners to not only care about social causes but to actively engage. Val-Core refers to the rise of people valuing engagement on issues that matter to them. For almost half of the people on Bumble in the Philippines, it is key that their partner actively engages with politics and social causes, in fact, it makes them more attractive. Specifically, 84 percent of Filipinos say their potential partner engaging in human rights issues is important to them, followed by sustainability and politics and voting. 

Intuitive intimacy. It seems attraction comes down to one key thing: emotional intimacy. Filipino singles are focused on finding security, safety and understanding, with 44 percent of those surveyed on Bumble believing that emotional intimacy is now more important than sex and that it’s actually more attractive than physical connection.

Consider-date. This year’s prioritization of self-care and mental health has led to more than half of singles around the world being more open about their mental health and making a concerted effort to slow down. In the Philippines, single people are reframing how they date to better protect their mental health, with almost half of those surveyed locally actively “slow-dating” and being considerate about how much they are dating to ensure quality over quantity, even more so among women. In fact, almost half of Filipinos are actively seeking people who practice and value self-care. 

Open-hearted masculinity. When it comes to relationships, close to one-third of Filipino men state that they have actively changed their behavior, becoming more vulnerable and open with people they are dating than ever before. For 42 percent of men, this new-found openness has had a positive impact on their mental health and for whom a lack of vulnerability is now a dating dealbreaker.

Betterment burnout. From biohacking and starting your day at 5 a.m. to plugging into self-help podcasts, there has been a rise in people “self-optimizing” — striving to become a perfect version of themselves. This has led the majority of singles surveyed globally to feel pressure to constantly look for ways to better themselves, with this number being even higher in the Philippines at 69 percent of Filipinos feeling the same way. This leaves more than one in four feeling unworthy of a partner. Looking ahead to 2024, singles are rebelling against the constant self-improvement with more than two in three Filipino women surveyed taking active steps to be happier with who they are here and now. 

Lucille McCart, Bumble’s APAC communications director, said: “In 2023, dating themes centered around travel romances, the importance of clear and healthy boundaries and dating outside your type. We know that social and cultural movements are incredibly intertwined with our dating and social lives, and this year we saw many conversations come to a head on social issues including misogyny, therapy speak, women’s rights, among others, which have left many people — especially women — feeling exhausted. This is all having an impact on how people on Bumble are dating in the Philippines and around the world — people are assessing what is important to them, feeling more empowered in their sense of self and seeking out people who value the same things as them, whether that is social causes, lifestyle choices, or even as simple as their favorite sports team.”

She added: “We predict that 2024 will usher in a year of the self, with Filipinos feeling empowered to prioritize what they value, be fearless about what they stand for and have a renewed sense of clarity about what they want in their romantic lives.”

To empower singles to make the most of 2024, Bumble has launched new features including Best Bees, a curated daily set of four compatible profiles to help find more relevant connections faster.