Partners, flings, and dates can now be found with a few swipes on our phones — for better or worse. This is especially true for LGBTQ people: Queer Americans are much more likely to use dating apps than straight ones, according to the Pew Research Center.
Grindr launched in 2009, completely transforming dating and sex for queer men over the last 15 years. The introduction of accessible apps specifically catering to the queer community (like Grindr and others) broke down significant barriers to finding fellow LGBTQ people in one's area and became a cornerstone of queer sex culture.
The most well-known gay dating and hookup app is still undoubtedly Grindr. However, given recent product issues and growing user frustration, other apps are vying for the new top spot.
The quick downfall of Grindr
Grindr's rise to become a household name alone showcases how far the community has come, from early 2000s Craigslist ads placed to meet other queer people looking for companionship, to the "largest social networking app for gay, bi, trans and queer people" (according to the app, anyway).
In 2024, however, Grindr has been plagued by issues: updates that led to serious bugs and the introduction of further paywalls. The latter includes limiting the visibility of "taps" (a feature indicating interest without sending a direct message), which are now only visible within three hours of being sent. Also, the "explore" feature (allowing you to bypass the usual location-based method of seeing other users) unlocks only one profile outside a user's grid a day, whereas it used to unlock three. These can only be circumnavigated by purchasing a subscription.
When an app like Grindr becomes so embedded into the queer experience, the removal of features and its failure to deliver due to bugs can feel like a betrayal at best, or a user being severed from the queer community at worst. Especially when features like taps, indicating attraction, are hidden behind a paywall, it becomes clear that connection between people is not the main priority for the organisation at this point.
Despite many other options, Grindr remains the most well-known app with almost 14 million active monthly users globally, according to a spokesperson. In response to a request for comment on the complaints made by users, Grindr's spokesperson said, "Since a major investment in modernising our chat platform earlier this year, we are aware that our users have experienced technical challenges on Grindr. We appreciate our users' loyalty and support as we invest in upgrading and improving the Grindr experience."
That being said, how is it possible that an app with such a huge user base (and earning a revenue of $82 million in Q2 2024 alone) struggles to keep its app functioning at an acceptable level? X (formerly Twitter) and other platforms are littered with complaints from users, relaying instances of bugs occurring without warning. Other apps have been undergoing similar issues, with Feeld's updates late last year causing usability issues.
Gus*, an active Grindr user based in London, thinks the Grindr bugs must be "annoying for those who are more reliant on them, in smaller cities, living with disabilities, etc." For himself, he deals with the bugs and recognises that the paid tiers aren't cheap.
Grindr's paid tiers start at £8.99/$12.99 for a one-week subscription to "XTRA" and up to £34.99/$39.99 for one month of "UNLIMITED" as of publication. Both remove significant limits placed on free accounts, i.e. the ability to see more profiles, taps, and fewer third-party ads.
Other gay dating apps, like Taimi and SCRUFF, swoop in
Whilst Grindr has remained an LGBTQ household name, other apps are becoming more commonplace. Alex Pasykov, founder and CEO of inclusive LGBTQ dating app Taimi, sees this moment as an opportunity, as "since their creation, all apps focused on the algorithm of a man looking for a man have been competing with Grindr in one way or another and dreamed of winning the attention of at least part of their audience."
He recognises that users already use multiple apps at once, with their research suggesting that 60 percent of Taimi users utilise other apps for various reasons.
SCRUFF and Jack'd are two popular LGBTQ apps with 30 million combined registered profiles, many of which log in monthly, according to a spokesperson. SCRUFF represents around 65 percent of these and Jack'd represents the remaining 35 percent. The developer declined to share the exact figures of monthly active users.
"Our company is privately held and is queer-owned and queer-led," says Eric Silverberg, founder of Perry Street Software, developer of SCRUFF and Jack'd, counting this as a principal difference between Perry Street and other apps.
"The publicly-held competitors in the dating landscape are publicly-held stock companies. They have intense pressure to monetise," Silverberg continues. "And eventually, this day would have come, sooner or later, if you have that kind of investor pressure, and this is the consequence you're seeing — a lot of pricing pressure across the board in the software industry broadly, and in [the] dating industry in particular." Grindr went public in 2022, and publicly traded companies own other major dating apps including Tinder and Hinge (both owned by Match Group) and Bumble.
"And it's probably because dating is the area of software that most consumers are exposed to subscriptions, other than video and music subscription services. And the last couple years have been intense pricing pressure upward, and it's most acute for the publicly traded companies," Silverberg says.
This isn't only an issue with Grindr. Users of apps like Tinder and Bumble have said that over the years the dating apps have gotten worse in terms of more ads and fewer free features.
Silverberg's sentiment is shared by Donny Smith, chief creative officer at Bttr., a brand and digital experience company. "Dating apps are failing their user base because they're prioritising monetisation over user experience. The relentless push for profits through increased paywalls is alienating users who just want a seamless, reliable experience," Smith says.
Eric, a Boston-based user of queer apps says, "Grindr has become almost unusable at times. The ads pop up probably 3x what they do on SCRUFF, and it'll take 3-4 attempts to close out the ad." Currently, he finds himself most frequently using Sniffies, a hyper-localised LGBTQ app focusing on cruising and a lack of censorship, aiming to foster spontaneous, real-life encounters, currently in a global rollout.
"SCRUFF ads are more manageable, Sniffies free version is super usable and the ads are just messages that sit at the top of your chat list, not terrible," Eric continues.
SCRUFF and Sniffies both offer paid tiers similar to Grindr. SCRUFF Pro starts at £6.99/$9.99 per week, with discounted tiers for longer subscriptions, and offers the ability to see complete messaging histories, which are locked on free tiers. Sniffies pricing starts at £5.99/$10.99 for a one-week trial with similarly discounted tiers and offers the ability to unblock users, see unlimited profiles, and post widely received updates.
Dating apps are failing their user base because they're prioritising monetisation over user experience.
Sniffies' work "is driven by a deep understanding of the unique challenges faced by the LGBTQ community, and we strive to create a platform that is not only functional but also empowering, risk-taking, and inclusive," says Eli Martin, Sniffies' CMO and creative director.
Similarly, Silverberg attributes some of Perry Street's success to a real understanding and focus on the LGBTQ community. "We have worked over the years to build a very thoughtful, very intentional queer ad business," he says. "We only work with advertisers that want to be on our platform, they really want to reach our community, not working with shady games companies."
Silverberg explains that some ads are intended to normalise and share important messages, recognising that repeated exposure to messaging on PrEP (a medication used to significantly reduce the risk of contracting HIV), can have a huge effect in the long term.
Grindr's frequent pop-up ads, meanwhile, often feature low-budget games that push you toward the App Store.
The need for gay dating apps to stay accessible
Eric explains that "meeting people on apps is sometimes easier for me," continuing that he's "not necessarily a big 'club' person, so I'm not often in spaces where people are trying to find someone for romantic or sexual encounters."
Seventy-two percent agreed that online dating plays a significant role in making connections and forming relationships with others in the LGBTQIA+ community, according to a survey by Tinder provided to Mashable, carried out with 4,000 respondents from the LGBTQIA+ community in the UK, U.S., Australia and Canada.
The cost of living crisis is likely to affect those from marginalised groups more severely. With dating and hookup apps also facing rising costs and increasing their subscription prices, those from marginalised groups are likely to be disproportionately impacted by changes made by developers in their pursuit of financial stability and profit maximisation. With free functionality beginning to become more limited as paywalls rise, it is not unreasonable to suspect barriers to accessing queer communities will increase.
"I'm a business owner," Silverberg explains. "And so we have software subscription products that we buy to power our business. They are all pressing us. Every single one is pressing us on price in the last 12 to 24 months."
Apps like Grindr are attempting to push these rising costs onto consumers. This reeks of short-term thinking, only seeing your user base as a financial resource — not your platform's lifeblood. With an area so sensitive as dating, users want to feel trust in their platforms of choice, not like they will be expected to drop more and more money to meet a future partner. These apps may succeed in cutting themselves off from their target demographics through a relentless pursuit of profit.
* Dating app users chose to go by their first names only for privacy reasons.
This column reflects the opinion of the author.
Topics Apps & Software LGBTQ
