How To Verify Your Bumble Profile So That Matches Will Know You're Legit

I was recently talking to a male friend who was single for approximately one minute. During that minute, he went on Bumble and his first impression was: "There are fake profiles on that [expletive] app." I hear him. I feel like the ratio of models to normals is way out of line with the actual ratio of models to normals where I live (and I live in New York). In case you are easily confused for a model, I investigated how to verify your Bumble profile so that people know you are for real.

As someone who has never been mistaken for a model, I have not felt the need to "verify" my Bumble, and honestly barely noticed the yellow "check" next to certain profiles. Basically, being "verified" means that the company has verified you as an actual, real person. (No social security number required.)

Before you say "I'm not worthy!" — first of all, you are. It's just a check mark on a dating app. Second, this isn't the blue check on Twitter or Instagram that solidifies your status as a D-list celebrity; this is simply confirmation that you are not a robot. Bumble frames the feature as a way to "kiss catfish goodbye."

When this feature was introduced in 2016, the app pretty much confirmed that there is a proliferation of fake profiles on the Bumbs, so it's worth looking into verification as a sort of modern day background check for dating? Hm, 2017 is weird. If you want to cover your bases, here's how to get your Bumble profile "checked":

First, Tap The "Verified" Button

According to Bumble's blog, cheekily titled "The BeeHive," the first thing you need to do is open your app, and click on the "verify" button on your own page, or on another profile. Easy as pie. Or, smooth as honey? (Let me have that?)

Next, Take A Selfie

I'm not being facetious. This is seriously the second step to getting verified. In perfect millennial and now Gen Z fashion, Bumble will prompt you with an example of one out of 100 random poses. Basically, they give you a photo and say "copy that." You will take a selfie mimicking that pose, and send it back to the Bumble administrators following the steps that the app takes you through.

This feels a little bit age discriminatory, no? I'm technically a millennial and this feels complicated. What if my selfie game isn't on point?

Then, Bumble Will Review Your Selfie

I know, I'm sweating, too. First, remember: It's just an app. Second, this should actually bring you comfort if you for some reason really care about being verified on Bumble. A real life person from Bumble (so they say) will review your selfie, so chances are you will have done a good enough job that they'll be like, "Oh, that's a person."

It's not as tricky as the weird "captcha" code you get when you're buying concert tickets. Despite not being a robot, when "E"s look like backwards "3"s, regurgitating that code always takes me three tries and leaves me feeling like a dummy. Within minutes, Bumble will give you a "yay" or "nay" — you don't have to sweat it out for long.

And... What Happens To The Bad Eggs?

Bumble straight up "next"s them. Their profile is turned off right away. Robot or not, if your selfies don't match your profile pictures, you are booted. Bumble is like, "Ain't nobody got time for that."

I'm not sure about all of this, considering bouncers don't recognize me from my license once in a while, and because my iPhone seems to think my face is three different people in my Camera Roll, but maybe Bumble has figured these kinks out.

So there you have it. It's super simple and intuitive to get verified on Bumble. In fact, all you have to do is follow the steps in the app exactly, and you'll be verified. The only problem I see with this whole system is that 1. robots and catfish are not going to request to be verified, so they're not going anywhere, and 2. if someone doesn't believe that the pictures on your dating profile are actually you unless you have a yellow "check" next to your face, then you are talking to someone with some pretttty major trust issues.

I've never been catfished, though, so I'm not sure how scarring it can truly be. Verify yourselves if you'd like, but consider why you're really doing it. Bumble isn't going to reply and say, "Well, that third picture of yours doesn't really look like you; you looked a lot younger then." They're just going to make sure you exist. To verify or not to verify, that is the question.

Here's a big reminder: Just have some fun.

Check out the entire Gen Why series and other videos on Facebook and the Bustle app across Apple TV, Roku, and Amazon Fire TV.