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    What It’s Like to Make a Friend on Bumble BFF

    “People can be really judgmental, like, ‘What’s wrong with you that you can’t make friends by yourself?’ But it’s honestly really hard to do it naturally.”
    by Julie Beck Feb 15, 2019 7 minutes
    Source: Wenjia Tang


    Every week, The Friendship Files features a conversation between The Atlantic’s Julie Beck and two or more friends, exploring the history and significance of their relationship.

    This week she talks with two young women who met on Bumble BFF—the friendship mode of the dating app Bumble—when they both were living in Austin, Texas. (One has since moved to New York.) They discuss becoming friends through an app, blind friend dates, and the stigma that’s still attached to swiping for friends. (Editor's note: This interview was conducted in July 2018.)

    The Friends

    Kristina Baptiste, 24, a copywriter and social-media manager at a music magazine in New York City
    Dree McCarrel, 27, a social-media manager for a beauty brand in Austin, Texas

    This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

    Julie Beck: When and why did you guys start using Bumble BFF?

    When Kristina and I met, I was doing social media freelance. I’m very extroverted, so I was feeling totally cooped up when I was working at home. I wanted to meet friends who had a similar lifestyle, who wanted to meet up and work at coffee shops and go swimming in the middle

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