Sometimes the hardest part of online dating is knowing what to say first. Keeping a good conversation going is a close second. Topic Suggestions are short message ideas Coffee Meets Bagel generates with AI to help you start a conversation (or keep one going!). Tap one to add it to your message box, tweak it, send it or write your own. You're always in control of what gets sent.
Where you'll see them
Topic Suggestions are built right into your app experience.
- Above the message box when you "Like" someone's photo or profile.
- Above the message box when you're replying to someone who liked one of your photos or prompts.
- Above the chat input when you open a chat that has no messages yet.
- Above the chat input when you tap the AI icon inside an active chat – and occasionally as a "Don't let it fizzle" nudge if a chat has gone quiet for a couple of days.
How your data is handled
To make a suggestion feel personal, we use two things:
- The bagel’s profile. Their photos, prompt answers, and the text fields they've filled in (things like their job, education, and interests).
- The recent messages in this one chat. If you've been messaging, we use the last few messages between the two of you so the suggestion stays in context.
That's it. We don't use:
- Messages from other chats
- Your name, contact info (email, phone number), payment details, location, or device information.
- Anything from outside Coffee Meets Bagel – not your contacts, your calendar, your photos in other apps or anything else.
CMB sends this information in an anonymized form to a trusted and authorized AI partner. Your name and account ID are stripped out before anything leaves. Our AI partner only processes what we send for the purpose of producing that one suggestion, can't use it to train its own models, and deletes it in accordance with the terms in our Privacy Policy.
We do keep an internal record of which suggestions get tapped and which get skipped to improve the feature over time. This is product data and never sold.
Both you and your bagel need to opt-in
Topic Suggestions only appear when both of you have turned the feature on. AI showing up in a conversation is the kind of thing both people should feel good about. This is why we made it a mutual choice, not a one-sided one.
Daily limits
There's a daily cap on how many AI suggestions each person can send and receive. These limits keep the feature in its lane: A helpful nudge when you need one, not a replacement for your own words.
When you hit the cap, Topic Suggestions will pause everywhere they'd normally show up. If you tap the AI icon, a short message will let you know that the feature is paused. It comes back after a while, usually within a day. You can keep your chat going normally in the meantime.
Languages
Suggestions are produced in the app language you've selected. If you and your bagel have been chatting in another language, suggestions may follow the chat, so the conversation stays natural.
If a suggestion feels off
AI is helpful, but not perfect. If a suggestion feels awkward, inaccurate, or just doesn’t sound like you, feel free to ignore it and write your own instead.
We’d love to hear how we can improve the experience for you. If you’d like to share feedback about the feature, including screenshots, please let us know here.
Turning Topic Suggestions on/off
You can switch this feature on or off anytime via the App Settings or within any chat.
- From Settings: Open the app, go to Settings → Topic Suggestions, and toggle Topic Suggestions off or on.
- From any chat: Tap the (•••) menu at the top of the chat and choose "Turn on/off topic suggestions"
Both options stop suggestions from appearing anywhere in the app, and stop your data from being sent for the purpose of generating suggestions. If you turn the feature back on, you may be asked to confirm permissions once before suggestions appear again.
For more on how we handle your data, see our Privacy Policy and Terms of Service.